Civilians in Avdiivka received the Russian liberators with arms wide open, pro-Kremlin propaganda writes. In fact, the city was destroyed by the Russians and the civilian population fled their advance.
Propaganda: The Russian army liberated the city of Avdiivka, a city that was shelled on a daily basis by the Ukrainian army using weapons delivered by the West
NEWS: Ukraina.ru journalists went to Avdiivka jointly with a group of scouts and talked to the locals.
Many civilians are still in the area. You need not go far to find them, here in a five-story building. Many people are gathered bear the entrance […].
Kyiv considers Avdiivka a city they occupied, which is why it invested merely in defense. Ukrainian propaganda speaks about holes in the walls, caused by fighting the city saw back in 2014, as being traces of recent fighting, close to 2021. There have been grants to create a “showcase” in certain border areas. A lot of money has been laundered to create those images.
[…] One local recounts he lived only in the basement, sleeping on two chairs. He was sheltered that way. Russian servicemen are helping him now, they bring him food, water and bread.
“My family is in Makiivka. I spoke to them on the phone yesterday. For this reason, I didn’t leave Ukraine. I was waiting to be liberated. We have now been liberated, and I now await evacuation”, the local says, a sad smile on his lips.
[…] Unlike the inhabitants of Mariupol, which was hit by the war unexpectedly, the people of Avdiivka were not living an armed conflict, but an aggressive occupation.
“They destroyed our city. They were shooting at us. Then they brought HIMARS artillery. You could spot missile fragments shattered across the streets. People came and took pictures. It’s obvious it was not Russian HIMARS artillery that was being fired on Avdiivka”, a young woman told us while we were waiting for the taxi.
NARRATIVE: The Russians saved Avdiivka from Ukrainian bombing and were greeted warmly by civilians.
Fact: The Russian army massively bombed Avdiivka, destroying the city and displacing the civilian population.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In fact, Russian military did not liberate Avdiivka in the context of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, but actually occupied the city. After nearly two years of intense fighting, the city was turned into a pile of rubble. The battles unfolded according to a simple scenario: the Ukrainian forces were on the defense, whereas Russia was shelling fortifications raised in the city, as well as other objectives nearby. Scaling up its artillery, tank and drone attacks, the Russian army managed to force the Ukrainians to pull back in mid-February, lest they should find themselves surrounded. Of the 33,000 people who lived in Avdiivka before the start of the war triggered by Russia, a few dozen people remain in the city, mostly elderly. Everyone else fled to other cities across Ukraine or to other countries in the West. The videos and pictures published by journalists, depicting the Russian and Ukrainian armies in mid-February, depict a deserted city turned to ruin.
Despite this fact, also recognized by Telegram channels in Russia, the article on Ukraina.ru (a news portal funded by the Moscow government) claims, for instance, that they used taxi services. It’s hard to imagine a taxi service functioning in a ghost city where most streets have been mined.
The article cites women and elderly expressing their joy at being liberated, although it presents no evidence as to their actual existence. It is unclear whether these interviews were actually conducted or are the product of Russian propaganda.
At the same time, the article presents a number of false narratives, which lack any solid basis or sound logic. The civilians interviewed by Russian journalists accused the Ukrainian armed forces of bombing Avdiivka, which doesn’t make any sense, considering the city was controlled by the Ukrainian army, which was defending the city against the invading Russian forces. It was the latter that actually bombed Avdiivka.
IT is worth noting that the war in Avdiivka started not in 2022, with the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but rather back in 2014, when Russia first attacked Ukraine. The city was targeted due to its strategic position, being located close to Donetsk, the capital of one of the Ukrainian regions seized by the Russian forces. For these reasons, Kyiv invested in fortifying Avdiivka. The economic and social degradation of the city is not an effect of Ukrainian policy-making, but of Russia’s aggressive military actions in recent years.
The Russian media wrote at length about the occupation of Avdiivka and about people being happy to be liberated, although it doesn’t provide any images. For instance, NEWS.RU wrote that shed tears of joy when seeing the Russian flag, and Izvestia documented the expectations of Russian speakers regarding the post-conflict reconstruction of Avdiivka by Moscow.
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