“Macron would rather let all the forests in France burn than order planes from Russia.” On social networks, Internet users claimed that the French government refused to acquire a Russian water bomber, the Beriev Be-200, while the France lacks Canadair to deal with monster fires in Gironde, in the southwest of the country. These Internet users accompany their publication with a demonstration video of the device, viewed more than 450,000 times on a single post on the X network.
An Internet user’s post published on July 27, 2026 falsely suggesting that the French government rejected the use of the Beriev Be-200 primarily for political reasons. Source X.
The Beriev Be-200 is a seaplane specialized in firefighting. The aircraft is capable of carrying 12 tonnes of water, a carrying capacity twice as large as that of a Canadair CL-415, the Canadian-made model. Powered by jet engines, the Russian plane can fill its water tanks in 14 seconds.
A device that does not meet the needs of Civil Security
Contrary to what these Internet users claim, if the Beriev Be-200 was not acquired or used by France, it is firstly because of technical constraints noted before the deterioration of relations between France and Russia following the war in Ukraine which began in 2022. The device had in fact been tested in 2011 and 2003 by Civil Security, years before Emmanuel’s first presidential term. Macron of 2017, while his responsibility is pointed out by Internet users.
The evaluation of the Beriev Be-200 carried out in 2011 in “operational conditions”, according to a report from the National Assembly published in 2016, had shown the “limits of the device”, which was then described as “a disappointed hope”. At the end of this evaluation, it was noted that the Beriev Be-200 did not meet “the needs of Civil Security”.
The conclusions of the test in 2003 detail the problems noted by Civil Security, as reported in an article in Parisian. The aircraft was then judged “too rustic” and the aircraft tests “not impressive” by Civil Security pilots.
First, the pilots had expressed “serious doubts” about the real volume of water that the Beriev Be-200 could carry: “nearly 10 tons of water” instead of the 12 tons announced by the manufacturer, the pilots then estimated. Then, the device was considered unsuitable for the terrain on which it would have been required to operate.
Finally, the supposed speed advantage of the Beriev Be-200, which is powered by jet engines while the Canadairs have propeller engines, appeared to be a handicap.
“To kill the fire, you must not be too low, nor too high, nor too fast. The ideal scenario consists of dropping our 6 tons of water compactly between 30 and 100 meters of altitude with a speed of 230 km/h. And that, a jet plane will never be able to do in the Corsican mountains, the Moors,” lamented a pilot to Le Parisien.
An erroneous statement among a wave of pro-Russian misinformation
It appears that this erroneous statement, promoting a Russian plane, was disseminated while a wave of misinformation took advantage of the fire disaster to relay Russian propaganda.
On July 27, an Internet user shared a supposed interview of a captain of a Canadair from Civil Security denouncing to the 8 p.m. news of France 2 the importance of the expenditure devoted to aid to Ukraine while France lacks Canadair.
“17 billion to fuel the war in Ukraine and corruption, 15 billion a year to fatten Von der Leyen and the EU, and we lack firefighting planes!”, the pilot is said to have complained.
However, as we can see in the full video of the interview broadcast on the site of franceinfothis pilot had in fact never uttered such anti-Ukrainian remarks.
