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Published on: 02/20/2026 - 4:35 p.m.

Every day brings its new batch of sordid revelations in the Epstein affair. The French aspect takes on an unprecedented scale after the publication of the "Epstein files" and the prosecution decided to open two framework investigations. At the same time, Ukraine is entering its fifth year of war. More and more civilians have decided to get involved, like the Franco-Ukrainian journalist Maryna Kumeda, Laure Manent's guest in this edition.

The "Epstein files" never stop pouring heaps of horror into the media, which seeks to sort through the three million documents published by the American Department of Justice. The names of Jack Lang and his daughter Caroline Lang, mentioned in these documents, led to their resignations from their respective positions and a renewed interest in the French version of the affair. But these possible financial implications with the American billionaire and sexual predator are nothing compared to the sexual violence committed by several other men whose names are regularly cited in connection with Jeffrey Epstein. Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau also invited French victims to come forward and file a complaint.

A first investigation was opened in France in 2019 after two reports, from the Innocence in Danger association and after a letter from the Femme et libre association “evoking French complicity in the case concerning Jeffrey Epstein in the United States”.

The investigations led to the incarceration of Jeffrey Epstein's modeling agent and prey tout, Jean-Luc Brunel. Arrested in December 2020 at Roissy airport, he had a one-way ticket to Senegal and was carrying a large sum of money in cash. He was found hanged in his cell in 2022. The investigation was closed the following year.

A long list of men interests French justice

But in documents published online, exchanges between Jeffrey Epstein and other men in France show that the first investigation had only scratched the surface of the case. Among the names that come up regularly, there is that of another "scout" (model recruiter), the Algerian-Swedish national Daniel Siad, now accused by the ex-Swedish model Ebba Karlsson of having raped her in 1990. She has just filed a complaint against him but she had already testified, in 2020, against Gérald Marie, the boss of the Elite Models agency, recounting how he had demanded money from her. sexual favors when he represented her.

Among the other men whose names appear in the published files, that of the diplomat Fabrice Aidan. The emails do not show a link to the billionaire's sex crimes but reveal their proximity. On the other hand, he is suspected of having transmitted internal UN documents to Epstein and was targeted by an FBI investigation for having consulted child pornography sites when he lived in New York. This led to him being discreetly exfiltrated from the United States in 2013. In France, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to no longer let him hold a post abroad but no legal action was taken.

The slightly too close links of two French diplomats with the sex criminal

He is not the only diplomat to have associated with Jeffrey Epstein a little too closely: this is also the case of Olivier Colom, close to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy. With him, the sex criminal exchanges emails comparing the young women who interest them to marine animals. For Jeffrey Epstein, they are like shrimp: "You throw away the head, and you keep the body...", he wrote to the diplomat, who replied that he was preparing to go to Russia, where "there is undoubtedly a lot of fresh fish". As for the conductor Frédéric Chaslin, he is also very present in the exchanges with the billionaire. Some raise questions, like an email from September 2013, where he said he "found a wonderful girl for your next stay in Paris. Philosophy student. 21 years old. She looks a bit like [Roman] Polanski's current wife". Their meeting dates back to August 2012, through Paula Heil Fischer, wife of the composer and companion of Jeffrey Epstein... already convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor prostitute. He is now the subject of a complaint for sexual harassment from opera singer Amelia Feuer.

Four years of full-scale war in Ukraine

At the same time, Ukraine is entering its fifth year of war against Russia after Moscow launched its large-scale invasion of the former Soviet republic on February 24, 2022. The conflict has to date caused more than two million victims – dead, injured, missing – on both camps. Despite a very tense situation on the ground, the Ukrainian population refuses to give up and the voluntary commitments of civilians continue, including women. There are now more than 70,000 of them in the Ukrainian armed forces. The majority of them occupy administrative functions but there are at least 5,500 on the front. A major change because until 2018, women could not join the army. The profiles of those taking part in the conflict are very varied, from ballroom dancer Tetiana Khimion to the mother-daughter team formed by Natalia and Veronika, they occupy positions that were still impossible a few years ago. Some became deminers after training in Kosovo, others, further from the danger, participate in other ways, by making bulletproof vests or by joining the Civil Territorial Defense. A resistance that is written in the feminine.

Among those who decided to take part in the conflict, there is the Franco-Ukrainian journalist Maryna Kumeda. After spending two years documenting the conflict, meeting its protagonists and recounting what she saw in two books, Love in Times of War and Diary of a Ukrainian Woman, she decided to put down her pen to take up arms. The decision took a long time to make but she trained, in her personal time and with her savings, in various specialties before deciding to sign on for good: "medic", drone pilot, sports training... Little by little, she identified what interested her the most and organized the rest of her life around the war, deciding that her position as an observer was no longer enough for her and that she needed a more concrete commitment.

For the author and (former) journalist, it was not the fear of death or being injured that held her back but the total investment and without real visibility which was a source of in-depth reflection because "we have been living with death for years in Ukraine. Russia bombs the cities, so we know that even as civilians, we can be killed at home". Maryna Kumeda was struck when the front line approached her hometown of Sumy in May 2025, but she thinks, like many Ukrainians, she says, that "we are already in the Third World War. In the West, it's not yet so clear to you, but we here, that's what we think." A red rag also waved by Moscow for several years as much as a Russian accusation against its adversaries, and in particular against Emmanuel Macron... But above all, this feeling was already shared by the Ukrainian economist Oxana Chorna on the Eastern front. It was at the very beginning of the Russian offensive against Ukraine… in 2014.

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