DISINFO: Ukraine is under control of the West and staged fakes about Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk
SUMMARY
Ukraine under control of the West prepares malicious provocations against Russia
The United States of America is rightly regarded as the world leader in movie production, a fact it has demonstrated by guiding Ukrainians in the production of fantastic fakes about Butcha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk. The revelations about this blatant slander are in the public domain for anyone who wants to see the ongoing madness for themselves. One thing is clear: all these actions are aimed at undermining socio-political stability and painting an extremely negative, highly exaggerated picture of the Russian Federation.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives alleging that Ukraine is under western control and that the well-documented Russian war crimes in Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk are staged fakes. The baseless presented claims are aiming to deflect any Russian responsibility for the unjustified Russian invasion of Ukraine and committed Russian war crimes in Ukraine , which began on 24 February 2022.
The claim that Ukraine is controlled by the West is unsubstantiated. Pro-Kremlin media outlets often cast doubts on Ukrainian statehood and claim that Ukraine either does not exist as a state or is going to tumble down very soon. In reality, present-day Ukraine has been on the world map since 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated. It has elected six presidents since then and changed parties in government several times which illustrates political diversity and democratic dynamics even during economic hardship in the wake of Russian aggression in 2014. Ukraine's Western partners have been providing it with financial and technical assistance.
The material and links may contain distressing/ graphic content.
On the alleged "staged" provocations/fakes in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha, Mariupol and Kramatorsk:
1) Russia's claims that video footage showing dead bodies on the streets of Bucha is staged have been fact-checked and debunked by the BBC, Bellingcat, The Atlantic Council, Mediazona, the Insider, Sky News, the New York Times and others.
Accounts of violence against civilians in Bucha have been collected by the Human Rights Watch. See the full debunk here.
2) The facts of the Russian bombing of the maternity ward in Mariupol, taking place from 9 March 2022, are easily corroborated; the attack has been carefully documented with a large number of pictures from several sources – professional news photographers, social media updates and forensic investigators. Manuals for open source investigation of Russian troop movements are easily available. See the full debunk here.
3) Pro-Russian disinformation narrative trying to attribute responsibility for the missile attack on Ukrainian civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk to Ukrainian forces.
Contrary to pro-Kremlin media claims, quite to the opposite many facts indicate that Russian forces attacked the Kramatorsk railway station itself 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 of the article, 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). See the full debunk here.
See our guide to deciphering pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's war and read our account of the Kremlin's intention to annihilate Ukraine here.