France on Friday summoned Russia’s ambassador to the country over a Twitter post that was mocking Europe as the war between Moscow and Kyiv is ongoing.
The French Foreign Ministry summoned the envoy for a post that Paris deemed unacceptable, the ministry said.
The Russian Embassy in Paris on Thursday had posted a picture depicting a body lying on a table called "Europe" with characters representing the United States and European Union jabbing needles into it.
"These posts are unacceptable. We made that clear today to the Russian Ambassador," the ministry said in a statement sent to Reuters. "We are trying to maintain a demanding channel of dialogue with Russia and these actions are completely inappropriate," it added.
France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had slammed the cartoon post on Thursday calling it "a disgrace" in response to the drawing that had been posted earlier in the afternoon by the Twitter account of the Russia Embassy in France (@AmbRusFrance).
The picture has since been removed from the embassy's feed.
The drawing implied that the European continent was being destroyed by policies undertaken by the United States and the EU.
The needles, seen being jabbed into the body illustrating Europe, contained words such as "NATO," "COVID-19," "Cancel Culture" and "Sanctions."
The Russian Embassy in Paris had timed its publication of the cartoon to coincide with Thursday's unprecedented triple summit in Brussels of NATO, the G-7 and the EU to discuss how to tackle Russia's war in Ukraine.
Western leaders met in Brussels to strengthen their forces in Eastern Europe, increase military aid to Ukraine and tighten their sanctions on Russia as Moscow's assault on its neighbour entered its second month.
Meanwhile, Western nations continued to crank up the cost of war for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Germany’s economy minister said Friday that his country has forged contracts with new suppliers that will allow it to significantly reduce its reliance on Russian coal, gas and oil in the coming weeks.
The U.S. also announced a new round of sanctions targeting 48 state-owned defense companies, 328 members of the Duma, Russia’s lower parliament, and dozens of Russian elites. The White House said the efforts were designed to blunt Russia’s ability to use its international reserves to fund the war.
Britain on Thursday sanctioned 65 more companies and individuals over the invasion. The targets include Russia’s largest private bank and a woman who the British government says is the stepdaughter of Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
On Friday, Lavrov described Western efforts to sanction Russia internationally as "total war." He said the goal was "to destroy, break, annihilate, strangle the Russian economy, and Russia on the whole."
