DIGEST
COUNTERING RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA
Kremlin’s officials continue to deny horrific crimes committed by the Russian military towards civilian population, as well as crimes against humanity during the so-called “special military operation” on the territory of Ukraine.
In this context, a spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mariia Zakharova is one of the leading actors. At the Russian MFA’s daily briefing she cynically stated that “everybody knows that the Russian Armed Forces don’t bomb peaceful cities. Despite a huge number of fake videos and photos, edited by the NATO’s structures, the truth will still come out.”
A real truth is that even the Russian propaganda is unable to present hard evidences which could confirm such false statements.
On the contrary, every day of Russia’s invasion brings grim news on Russian shelling of humanitarian convoys, bombardments of civilian infrastructure and killing of innocent people.
Moreover, on March 2, 2022, in accordance with demands of 39 countries, the International Criminal Court has opened an investigation into the situation in Ukraine concerning war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Russian propaganda launched a new fake on people’s demand to the President of Ukraine.
The fake includes information on alleged live appearance of unknown person with poster with a provocative inscription on the state TV channel UA during the FreeDOM marathon. The inscription includes message to Volodymyr Zelenskii on capitulation and return to the scene.
In reality this action didn’t happen and photo collage has all signs of fake image. Neither TV channel officials nor audience don’t know person on the picture.
Russian media spread false information aimed at levelling of Russian military bombardment of the theatre in the city of Mariupol on March 16, 2022.
By referring to the statement of representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic Eduard Basurin it claims that “the theatre was shelled from the tanks by nationalists from “Azov” battalion in order to create a provocation for further accusation of Russian military”.
It is worth to note that even Russian propagandists are not able to properly coordinate the details of their actions.
In particular, the Russian Ministry of Defence informed on “a new bloody provocation of the members of Azov nationalist battalion who blew up the mined theatre building”.
Besides, Ministry of Defence officials added that “at the same time, Russian Air Forces did not conduct any combat missions related to bombardment of targets within the city limits of Mariupol”.
It sounds especially cynical taking into account that there were two words “Children” written in large letters on the ground next to the building.
It is not the first time when Russian propaganda tries to justify crimes of its military in Ukraine addressing mythical nationalist formations.
The hard truth is that during the last few days Russian aircraft dropped more than 100 bombs on city blocks trying to destroy civilian infrastructure, as well as to undermine morale and spirit of city defenders.
Up to date more than 2500 citizens of the city of Mariupol died and thousands were wounded during the Russian siege. Taking into account that before Russian military aggression population of the city of Mariupol was about 440 thousand, it can be argued that there is the biggest humanitarian disaster created by Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integratio
