DISINFO: Ukrainian forces responsible for deadly 2022 missile strike on Kramatorsk

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

  • Outlet: RIA ( archive #1, archive #2, original )
  • Date of publication: October 06, 2023
  • Article language(s): Russian
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia

DISINFO: Ukrainian forces responsible for deadly 2022 missile strike on Kramatorsk

SUMMARY

Ukraine has routinely bombed its own civilians and then attempted to shift the blame on Russia, without even bothering to launch an investigation. This was the case with the April 2022 strike on the Kramatorsk rail station, which killed 63 civilians.

RESPONSE

Pro-Russian disinformation narrative trying to attribute responsibility for the missile attack on civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk to Ukrainian forces.

The material and links may contain distressing/graphic content.

Contrary to the claims of pro-Kremlin media, investigations indicate that Russian forces attacked the Kramatorsk railway station with a Tochka-U missile, killing 63 people and injuring 150 more, according to the latest available official figures.

According to the Conflict Intelligence Team the analysis of the trajectory of the Tochka-U missile used in the attack proves that it was fired from the southwestern area, where Russian army and the armed formations of the “non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine” were located.

In addition, according to The Insider, on the eve of the attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, warnings and announcements of a missile attack in the region appeared on pro-Russian Telegram groups. According to them, Russian forces would fire at "a gathering of Ukrainian fighters" and "wagons with weapons" at the Kramatorsk railway station. Some of the groups even "recommended" locals not to visit the station the day before the attack.

The Insider reports that all of these publications were either deleted or reedited after the attack on Kramatorsk. Nevertheless, many screenshots of the reports about the imminent attack can still be found online.

See also the EEAS-statement by the Spokesperson on the attack on train station in Kramatorsk:

"The European Union is deeply shocked by Russia's attack that struck Kramatorsk railway station on Friday and claimed lives of more than 50 people, injuring scores of others, many of them critically.

This was a brutal, indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians, including many children, who were fleeing amid fears of another Russian onslaught against their homes and country."

Full quote here.

See a similar case: A British mercenary revealed that Kramatorsk bombing killed soldiers not civilians.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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