DISINFO: Media wrongly accuse Russia of bombing of Kramatorsk railway station
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian government and Western media immediately blamed Russia for the Kramatorsk attack. However, evidence, some of it provided by Western media, shows that the missile was in fact launched by the Ukrainian military.
The serial number of the missile, indicated that it is of Ukrainian origin. Russia had also had these missiles in service. However, they were removed from service because their characteristics are inferior to those of the Iskander-M. The missile could not have reach Kramatorsk if it had been launched from a territory controlled by the Russian forces. But all this evidence was not enough for the Western media which, until today, continues to blame Russia for this tragedy.
RESPONSE
This is an attempt to obskure and confuse the audiences and deflect attantion away from Russia's responsibility for atrocities committed in Ukraine. The technique is "blame the others": Accusation against western media to invent fake Russian war crimes and accusation of Ukrainian army with two options either a tragic accident or a deliberate crime of Ukraine against its own population.
It is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing Ukraine of carrying out atrocities during the course of the war, including against its own population, and then blaming Russia. This particular claim was made in the context of the visit by NATO Secretary General to Kyiv in April 2023, which was exploited to lob accusations against Ukraine in order to justify Russia’s war of aggression against it.
On April 8, 2022, a Tochka-U missile hit the railway station in Kramatorsk, filled with civilians trying to evacuate from the combat area to the western regions of Ukraine. The strike killed 60 civilians, including 7 children.
Contrary to pro-Kremlin claims, there is strong evidence that Russian forces attacked the Kramatorsk railway station with a Tochka-U missile, killing over 57 waiting civilians and injuring over 114 civilians, according to the Governor of Donetsk Region as of 11 April 2022.
Contrary to the presented claims, the Soviet Tochka-U missile system is still in use by the Russian army, as evidenced by video footage of transports through Belarus as of March 2022. See the full debunk from StopFake (German) (Russian) or Bellingcat.
In February 2023, Human Rights Watch and SITU Research published a detailed visual Investigation contradicting the version of Sputnik.
The evidence strongly indicates that the missile that killed and injured civilians at Kramatorsk train station was launched from Russian-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine. The attack was a violation of the laws of war and an apparent war crime.
See more debunks about the Kramatorsk attack here.
Read also related stories: Ukraine is under control of the West and staged fakes about Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk, Ukraine launched a missile strike on Kramatorsk railway station , Ukrainian fascists shelled the Kramatorsk railway station with a "Tochka U" missile system , Ukraine is responsible for the Tochka-U-missile attack on Kramatorsk railway station ,