The Pro-Kremlin media in Russia and in the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine have launched a series of false narratives about the destruction of civilian infrastructure in Donbass, which was allegedly staged by Kiev to “justify” its attacks on Russian-speakers.
NEWS: “The Ukrainian side is distributing fake videos about Donbass, showing civilian infrastructure destroyed by the People's Republics […] In order to justify its criminal actions, the Ukrainian side publishes false information and fabricates footage of the People’s Militia allegedly destroying civilian infrastructure, Regnum writes, presenting the photo / video evidence provided by Kiev regarding the attacks of the separatist forces on the Ukrainian localities as fake news/footage.
“They shot at the kindergarten themselves. A provocation from the Ukrainian armed forces” people wrote in comments. There are assumptions about a staging of this attack: “It's a fake prepared in advance. Take a look at the bottles in the photos and the balls arranged on the shelves. That shouldn't look like that if it were real”, Moskovsky Komsomol reads.
NARRATIVE: Kiev staged attacks by separatists in Donbass on civilian infrastructure to justify its crimes against Russian-speakers
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: In the context of the escalation of the situation in Donbass and the Russian military forces surrounding Ukraine, the separatists have intensified their fire in the direction of the territories controlled by the Kiev government.
Hundreds of explosions were reported on both sides of the front.
OSCE observers have seen a dramatic increase in cases of violations of the ceasefire agreements in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev’s troops are facing pro-Russia separatists. Hundreds of explosions were reported on both sides of the front.
Separatist attacks on civilian infrastructure in the Kiev-controlled territory have often been described in the pro-Kremlin media as fabrications, used by Ukraine as justification to open fire on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Moreover, the Russian-backed separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine also said a car had been blown up near their administration building in downtown Donetsk. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ukrainian officials have stressed that the escalation of clashes in eastern Ukraine is a “scenario of provocations”, developed by Russia to justify an attack on Ukraine.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this narrative is to convince public opinion in Russia and in the former Soviet states that the Ukrainian military is the only aggressor in the Donbass, and the separatist forces are only defending themselves.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: In reality, the kindergarten in Stanitsa Luganska and other civilian infrastructure targets came under the fire of the separatists’ artillery in Donbass, a fact documented by the international press, and also by Bellingcat and InformNapalm experts. According to independent experts, this is an attack from the territory controlled by the separatists and mercenaries supported by Moscow. According to a report by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, there were children and teachers in the kindergarten at the time of the attack . Two of the teachers were injured in the head. Numerous foreign television stations have reported on the situation and debunked the fake news launched by the pro-Kremlin media.
It is worth mentioning that the Russian press quoted many real or fake users of social media, who allegedly saw how the Ukrainian army fired at their own kindergartens and schools. The names of witnesses, photographs or other evidence that would illustrate this Moscow narrative are not presented.
In fact, the pro-Kremlin media and spokesmen for the People's Militia in the self-proclaimed republics have been forced to launch this fake news - which is ultimately quite unconvincing - because the destruction of civilian targets in eastern Ukraine by separatist forces contradicts the “classic” disinformation messages used recently. Veridica.ro has debunked a series of fake news about Ukraine’s intention to massacre civilians in Donbass and Russia’s initiative to save Donbass from the genocide masterminded by Ukraine and the West .
