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Claim:

Images authentically show a sculpture of Jesus Christ holding two Uzi submachine guns.

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In September 2026, images circulated on social media purportedly showing a sculpture of Jesus Christ completely covered in red paint and holding an Uzi submachine gun in each hand.

“BLASPHEMY: Statue of Christ crucified holding machine guns triggers uproar from Catholics,” one Facebook post (archived) read.

(Facebook page LifeSite)

Photographs of the sculpture spread across Facebook, TikTok and Reddit. Snopes readers also searched our website for information about the images.

In short, the images were authentic. They showed a real sculpture by French artist James Colomina, who confirmed to us via email that he created and installed the artwork at L’Aérosol, a network of spaces devoted to hip-hop and street art in Marseille, France, in September 2026.

What we know about the sculpture

Colomina posted photographs of the sculpture to Instagram on Sept. 10, describing the work as “Tu ne tueras point,” which is French for “Thou shalt not kill.” The post’s description read in full:

Thou shalt not kill.
L’Aérosol, Marseille, 2026.

We invented religions, laws, and principles.
Then we invented a thousand reasons to break them.

In an email, Colomina confirmed that the photographs showed the actual physical sculpture, which he installed at L’Aérosol on Sept. 7. “The sculpture is made of resin and painted red,” he said, adding that it “measures approximately 2 meters (6.5 feet) from head to toe.” He also confirmed that the weapons depicted in Christ’s hands were intended to be Uzis.

At the time, French-language coverage also documented the artwork. On Sept. 11, La Dépêche du Midi reported on the sculpture and published photographs credited to Colomina. Toulouse7 published similar details and also credited its images to the artist.

Colomina told us he personally took all of the photographs of the installation that he posted online or shared with news organizations, including images showing the sculpture both outside and inside L’Aérosol.

Why was the sculpture moved indoors?

Some news articles suggested the sculpture was moved indoors in response to public outrage.

Colomina told us he installed the sculpture outside L’Aérosol on the morning of Sept. 7, where it remained throughout the day. At approximately 11 p.m. that evening, organizers moved it indoors. According to Colomina, the decision was precautionary:

As the day went on, concern grew among the staff and organizers. They were convinced that this image, visible from the public space, would provoke very strong reactions. They were concerned about the consequences for the venue, but also about the safety of the staff and the people working there. As a precaution, they ultimately decided to remove the work from the exterior and move it indoors.

Colomina said that, to his knowledge, the decision wasn’t made in response to a specific threat. 

“The decision was primarily driven by the concerns of the staff and organizers about the reactions they believed the image would provoke,” he said.

Le Parisien later reported that there were concerns the sculpture could be damaged if it remained outside and that its display could offend the religious convictions of some local residents.

Therefore, the artist’s account suggests that the sculpture was not moved because of a specific threat or protest, but because organizers were worried the outdoor display could cause a strong reaction.

Meaning behind the sculpture

Colomina told us the work was based on the contradiction between the biblical commandment “Thou shalt not kill” and acts of violence committed in the name of religion:

“Thou shalt not kill” begins with a contradiction that fascinates me. The biblical commandment is clear: “Thou shalt not kill.” And yet, throughout history and still today, people have killed and continue to kill in the name of their God, regardless of the religion they claim to follow.

He said depicting Christ holding two Uzis was intended to force viewers to confront that contradiction. “Christ is a symbol here, but the work is not aimed at Christianity or at any particular religion,” Colomina said. Rather, the artwork addressed a broader discrepancy between the principles societies establish and their behavior:

Through the religions, laws and principles that structure our societies, the work confronts us with our contradictions. We establish rules, values and prohibitions, and then find a thousand reasons to break them.

All in all, the photographs circulating on social media were authentic. They showed Colomina’s physical sculpture, which he installed at L’Aérosol in Marseille in September 2026. The artist also confirmed that he took the photographs himself and that the sculpture depicts Christ holding two Uzis.

In September 2026, a claim recirculated online that Ukraine had allegedly given the U.S. false intelligence that the United States then leaked to Russia, which revealed the U.S. as an unreliable intelligence partner.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, starting a war that is ongoing as of this writing.

For example, one X user, whose post had been viewed more than 8 million times at the time of publication, wrote (archived), “France and Ukraine fed Trump false intelligence to test whether he would leak it to Putin—and he did.”

An Instagram user then posted a screenshot of that X post (archived). The caption said the claim fueled “speculation that Trump or people around his administration were leaking intelligence to Moscow,” but added that it “has not been proven.”

(X)

The rumor first spread at the start of 2026, shortly after French President Emmanuel Macron said France was providing two-thirds of Ukraine’s intelligence on Jan. 15. Social media users then suggested the reasoning behind the French-Ukrainian intelligence partnership was the alleged leak of false Ukrainian intelligence from the U.S. to Russia. Posts making the claim featured on X, Substack, Medium, Bluesky and Reddit.

Several posts, including one on Facebook (archived), featured a screenshot of a since-deleted X post by user Luc Rombout, which read:

Interesting message on French newschannel LCI:

“Ukrainian intell services sent false strategic info to US intell services… and observed that the information had been relayed to RUS and was used by RUS forces.”

=> total replacement of US as Intell partner with FRA, GBR, DEU [France, the U.K., Germany]

“Trump is leaking intelligence about our allies to Russia,” the Facebook post’s caption read.

Snopes could find no evidence confirming the rumor Ukraine had shared false information with the U.S. Instead, this claim appeared to stem from a misunderstanding of an interview that aired on Jan. 16, 2026, on the French news television channel LCI. 

The interview subject was Vincent Crouzet, who formerly worked at the Directorate General for External Security (DGSE), France’s foreign intelligence agency. He said in the interview, without citing his sources, that Ukrainian intelligence officials suspected the U.S. had leaked information to Russia, causing Ukraine to stop sharing intelligence with the United States.

Asked to clarify his assertion that the U.S. had leaked Ukrainian intelligence to Russia, Crouzet said in a Jan. 18, 2026, X post (archived), which in English reads, “No, I did not say that: I said Ukrainians suspected risks of information leaks from the U.S. to the Russians.”

Snopes first contacted Crouzet in January 2026 and then reached out to him again in September to ask him what evidence he could provide that Ukrainians suspected intelligence leaks from the U.S. to Russia and whether there was any reason to believe Ukraine had fed the U.S. false information. We also contacted the White House for a comment on the rumor. We will update this report if we receive any responses. 

Due to the fact that we could not verify or disprove these details independently, we did not give this report a rating.

The interview that sparked the rumor

The rumor spread, in part, via the screenshot of the X post by Rombout, who identified himself on his LinkedIn page as the head of a crisis management center in Belgium. 

Rombout’s post appeared to reshare a video clip posted on the 24H Pujadas account. 24H Pujadas is a program on LCI, considered reputable in France. 

The clip itself was genuine and not created or altered using an artificial intelligence tool. Snopes identified an X post by the TV program 24H Pujadas with the video clip (archived) and a full video of the segment on the day it aired, Jan. 16, 2026. The presenter on that day was French journalist Yves Calvi.

Rombout seemingly deleted his original X post that made the claim. In a later post, he said in French that he was quoting the discussion in the French news program, implying that the claim did not originate with him.

A review of the televised interview showed Crouzet saying, in the context of discussing Macron’s speech announcing France was now providing two-thirds of Ukraine’s intelligence, that two Ukrainian intelligence officials had decided to stop sharing intelligence with the U.S. due to a lack of trust (emphasis ours):

So this announcement went a bit under the radar, yet it is essential. It is essential in two ways. First because it marks the divorce between Ukrainian intelligence and U.S. intelligence, because if we [France] supply two-thirds of Ukraine’s intelligence, I can well imagine that the last third is supplies by other European partners — in this case, Germany and the U.K.

When did this divorce happen? It happened on Feb. 28, 2025, during the famous session in the Oval Office, which created a break in the trust between Ukrainian intelligence and U.S. intelligence, to the point where the two leaders of Ukrainian intelligence — so, Vasyl Malyuk for the SBU [Security Service of Ukraine] and Kyrylo Budanov … you can see them on the screen … for the GUR [Main Directorate of Intelligence, military intelligence] — decided to no longer share effective intelligence they had with their U.S. partner due to U.S. leaks to Moscow.

Rombout’s X post seemingly misinterpreted some details. At no point did Crouzet say Ukraine had fed the U.S. false information and then tracked that information to Russia. We first reached out to Rombout in January and then contacted him again in September for his response to our findings about the possible translation error. We will update this report if we receive a response.

For further reading, Snopes examined a rumor spread by Russian hackers that 1.7 million Ukrainians died or went missing during the war with Russia.