DISINFO: In Kharkiv, Russia targeted Ukrainian Armed Forces' facilities
SUMMARY
Footage of the consequences of a missile strike on Kharkiv: camouflaged facilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were destroyed.
Footage of destroyed houses, a damaged gas pipeline in the suburbs of Kharkiv, and of other destroyed buildings appeared. The destroyed facilities were used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces for personal purposes. Foreign mercenaries were located in one of the destroyed facilities. Dozens of militants have been eliminated.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation claim made in the context of Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. On 23 January 2024 Russian missiles attack of the center of Kharkiv killed 6 civilians. 57 were injured, including 8 children, UN reports.
The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) expressed alarm about a fresh wave of Russian missile attacks that shook several populated areas of Ukraine earlier in the day. HRMMU visited the scenes of the attacks in Kharkiv and in Kyiv to document their impact on civilians.
“Today before dawn countless people across Ukraine experienced another wave of attacks that brought more death, life-changing injuries, trauma, loss of property, and destruction,” said the head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell. In Kharkiv, HRMMU staff visited the site of an almost completely destroyed 5-storey residential building that appeared to have been directly hit by several missiles at around 7 am on 23 January.
Kharkiv is not on the frontline. No military equipment is seen on the pictures of the destroyed residential buildings.
Since mid-January, Russian disinformation media also advance narrative on the "French ‘Mercenaries’ killed in Kharkiv". The proofs of the claim, initially advanced by a kremlin-affiliated NGO, on "the destroyed French mercenaries" are not given.
While the Russian MoD is claiming it killed “French mercenaries” they actually hit residential, energy facilities and medical facilities.