Moscow said on Wednesday that its forces had carried out an attack on a building housing “foreign fighters” in Kharkiv.

France has rejected Russia’s claim that there are French mercenaries in Ukraine after the Russian Defense Ministry said earlier this week that its troops had killed “foreign fighters.”

“France supports Ukraine with the supply of military materials and military training in full compliance with international law, to support Ukraine in its struggle to defend its sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity,” the French Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

“France, unlike some other countries, has no mercenaries, neither in Ukraine nor elsewhere,” it continues.

On Thursday, Russia also summoned the French ambassador to Moscow, Pierre Levy, to its foreign ministry over the suspected French mercenaries, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

“In connection with the destruction of a temporary base of foreign fighters in Kharkiv by the Russian armed forces, including several dozen Frenchmen, the French ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying.

Moscow said on Wednesday that its forces carried out an attack on a building in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, a day earlier.

“On the evening of January 16, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out a precision attack on a temporary base of foreign militants in the city of Kharkiv, the core of which were French mercenaries,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It was said the building was destroyed and more than 60 people were killed, but no evidence was provided to support this claim.

After the attack on the Ukrainian city on Tuesday, the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said that there were no military targets in the area attacked by Russia. According to local authorities, 17 were civilians wounded in attack.

“Not militarily effective”

On Thursday, the head of the NATO Military Committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, criticized Russia’s recent attacks in Ukraine.

“Russia’s recent attacks, while devastating, are not militarily effective,” he said.

Bauer added that the war had reached a relative stalemate and the conflict was in a phase where it had “not moved much.”

“We should not expect a miracle to happen on either side,” he added.

Ukraine also warned on Thursday that the country is facing an ammunition shortage as its war with Russia nears the two-year mark.

“The lack of ammunition is a very real and pressing problem facing our armed forces,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said on the social media platform X.

“The artillery coalition is committed to solving this problem,” he said after speaking via video link to the Ramstein Contact Group, which brings together more than 50 countries supporting Ukraine.

“We must strengthen Ukraine’s defense capabilities to protect the free world from Russian evil,” he added.

The meeting came as Russia claimed its forces had driven Ukrainian troops out of Vesele, a village near the city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine.