The Ukrainian army is bringing bodies and destroyed military technology to the town of Lysychansk to stage a new massacre, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense claim. This is the latest false narrative whereby Moscow is trying to blame Ukraine for the war crimes committed by Russian troops.
NEWS: “The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced Ukraine is preparing a new provocative act in Lysychansk. According to the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the head of the National Defense Management Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, Ukrainian authorities are preparing a new dreadful provocation in Lysychansk.
The military espionage agency of the Russian Federation informs that destroyed military equipment and bodies of Ukrainian soldiers dressed in plainclothes, are being brought to this town. The organizers behind this provocative act are experts with the Center for Information and Psychological Operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
[…] The situation will be used as a new pretext to accuse Russian troops of “bloody crimes” against peaceful Ukrainian citizens. Once Russian troops are framed for having committed “crimes”, journalists of Ukrainian and Western news agencies, including from the United States, Latvia, the United Kingdom and Poland will be invited to report from the scene.
[…]
This scenario, which is first and foremost a cynical gesture towards the Ukrainian people and the dead Ukrainian soldiers, echoes the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War”, Mikhail Mizintsev argues.
NARRATIVE: The Ukrainian army will simulate a new massacre similar to the ones staged in Bucha or Borodyanka.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: The statement of the representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense is part of a broader series of similar statements, disinformation and fake news addressing Russian-speaking audiences with a view to shifting the blame for the war crimes committed by Russian troops on the Ukrainian side. There is no mention of Bucha or Borodyanka, although it is implied that the Russian general is talking about “simulating a new massacre” after the events in the Kyiv region. Some evidence (satellite footage, drone recordings) unequivocally proves that Russian military massacred civilians in Bucha, which has also been confirmed by the numerous testimonies documented by international media, human rights organizations and investigators in the preliminary stages of ongoing inquiries.
Veridica has already debunked several false narratives of the Russian media, according to which American experts believe the massacre in Bucha was made up by “Ukrainian propaganda”, or that French gendarmes will cover up the traces of Ukraine’s war crimes in Bucha. In mid-April, Russian propaganda disseminated both false narratives in parallel, although they exclude each other: on the one hand, the West wants to hide Ukraine’s war crimes in Bucha, while on the other hand the massacre in Bucha was faked.
The statement of Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev feeds into the second false narrative about the war crimes committed on the territory of Ukraine. In fact, no bodies or destroyed military equipment were brought to Lysychansk, a town in the Donbas region.
The head of the State Military Administration in LNR, Sergey Gaidai, reacted to this propaganda message, saying that the authorities found no bodies in the town. He wrote on Facebook that the occupying forces are using these statements to conceal their own crimes and shift the blame on Ukrainian Armed Forces”. Gaidai went on to say that Russian troops are shelling the town of Lysychansk, which means a lot of civilians could be killed. Later, Russian propaganda will again blame “Ukrainian propaganda” for framing the whole massacre.