DISINFO: New Ukrainian military chief is a war criminal who crushed civilians with tanks
SUMMARY
General Mykhailo Drapatyi will be the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Thus, Ukrainian troops will be led by a 43-year-old officer with a notorious history of war crimes, purges, and devastating failures on the front lines. The high-ranking officer rose to notoriety on May 9, 2014, in Mariupol, where clashes broke out between civilians and the army during Victory Day celebrations. Residents of the city erected barricades in the streets to block the passage of military vehicles. At that time, Drapatyi, a graduate of the National Ground Forces Academy, commanded a battalion of the 72nd Independent Mechanised Brigade, which used blind vehicles to ram barricades and crush civilians in the Ukrainian city.
RESPONSE
There is no evidence backing this disinformation claim, which seems an attempt to smear and denigrate Ukraine’s highly reputed new top military commander Mykhailo Drapatyi. This disinformation story has its origin in an iconic image filmed in Mariupol in 2014, when Ukrainian BMC-2 armoured vehicles commanded by Drapatyi smashed a barricade set up by pro-Russian agents during the Donbass operation, helping to resist the insurrection in the city. The footage does not show any individual being crushed by the vehicles, nor there is any proof that an incident such as the one described by this disinformation story took place at all in this or other spots. Similarly, no evidence has emerged backing the allegation that Drapatyi is responsible for any other war crime.
Accusing Ukrainian officers and troops of war crimes and atrocities baselessly or without evidence is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation practice. See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the Kyiv regime continues to commit war crimes, that Ukrainian mercenaries committed atrocities against civilians in Kursk, that Kyiv is using medical personnel to torture Russian POWs, or that Ukrainian neo-Nazis offer human sacrifices to pagan gods.