STRATEGY THREE: How Russia Comments on Its War Crimes
By Oleh Melnychenko
Strategy 3. Blaming Ukrainians Themselves
3.1. For shellings
To accuse Ukrainians in the constant shellings of the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a habitual thing for Russian propaganda for the last 8 years. Here is both the history and the debunking of this, probably, the oldest and the most widespread myth of Russian-Ukrainian war. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion on February 24 the amount of similar reports has increased sharply. For instance, the report about Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk appeared in the mid of March (refutation).
On April 8, Russian artillery shelled the train station in Kramatorsk, with at least 30 people dead and 100 wounded. At first, the shooters even reported of the successful operation, but after it was revealed that there were only civilians on the station, Russian speakers suddenly changed their story: now it was the Ukrainian army who killed all these people. A wide range of the aforementioned strategies was at use: the straightforward rejection (“Russian army doesn’t use the missile complex Tochka U'' — refutation here, here, and here), debunking and blaming Ukrainians themselves (''The serial number on the missile proves it belongs to Ukrainian army” — refutation, or “Ukrainians used civilians as living shields” — refutation), and of course the confirmation from abroad (“BBC blames Ukraine for Kramatorsk” — refutation).
In a similar fashion, Russians appealed to the “authoritative German journalist” Thomas Röper who accused the Ukrainian side after the Russians destroyed Mariupol drama theater, with 300 people dead. The matter of fact is that Röper is a pro-Kremlin blogger, whose reputation in German media can be summed up as a conspirologist, anti-vaxxer, and liar.
“To accuse Ukrainians in the constant shellings of the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is a habitual thing for Russian propaganda for the last 8 years.”
3.2. For the use of unconventional weapon
From the very first days of war, scientists, including those from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), criticized the Russian army for its irresponsible and dangerous maneuverings on the territories of the nuclear power plants. In response, the Russian side repeatedly blamed Ukrainians, who in reality had neither control nor access to the power plant equipment.
Thus, after the Russians invaded the notorious Chornobyl NPP, they claimed that Ukraine switched off the electricity there and refused to repair the station. Also, Russian propaganda blamed Ukraine after Russian soldiers shelled Zaporizhzhia NPP, so that it was only “by the grace of God,” as U.S. Representative to the United Nation Linda Thomas-Greenfield put it, that “the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe”. The conclusion of IAEA was the same for both cases: Russia and only Russia controls Ukrainian NPPs and for that reason remains responsible for any catastrophes foreseeable.
There were numerous attempts to blame Ukrainians either in use of chemical weapons or in causing the smash-ups on the chemical stores. Thus, according to Russian propaganda, the Ukrainian army used chlorine and phosphorus bombs in Kherson and Luhansk oblasts, mined the (non-existent) chlorine storage in Pervomaisk, and blew up a tank with nitric acid in Rubizhne. In addition, Russian soldiers ostensibly found Ukrainian drones for spraying chemicals. Both President Zelensky and President Biden agreed that statements like these are intended to prepare the ground for Russian propaganda in case the Russian army itself decided to use the forbidden means. These “accusations in advance” did not turn into the documented use of chemical weapons, although there were reports of Ukrainian soldiers and journalists about such incidents in Kyiv and Mariupol.
“There were numerous attempts to blame Ukrainians either in use of chemical weapons or in causing the smash-ups on the chemical stores”
3.3. For breaking promises on humanitarian corridors and aid
In response to multiple accounts of the Russians’ shellings of the humanitarian corridors, which repeatedly appear in the Ukrainian media, Russian speakers constantly blame Ukrainians. They claimed the Ukrainian side ignored the “green corridor” from Irpin. In reality, it was the Ukrainian mayor of Irpin who was in charge of the evacuation from the city, and it was the Russian army who blew up the railway tracks to prevent it.
Similarly, the leader of the terrorist organization Donetsk People’s Republic claimed the Ukrainian army was an obstacle for the Russian humanitarian corridor, although the local authorities assure that in reality the things were all the way around.
The Russian army was shelling the convoys with food and medicine supplies all over the territory of Ukraine - from Chernihiv in the North of Ukraine to Melitopol in the South. Quite naturally, they accused the Ukrainian army of stealing all these things.
3.4. For abusing the foreigners
Russian troops constantly — intentionally and not — commit different war crimes against the foreign citizens. Given the foreseeable political consequences of such actions, Russian propaganda tries hard to compromise the Ukrainian army in committing these crimes. They tried to put the blame on Ukraine for damaging the Romanian plane, for missile hits at Bangladesh and the Dominican ships.
Most of the fakes and debunkings mentioned in the article were collected and analyzed by Ukrainian fact-checkers from StopFake and Detector Media (with its two projects #DisinfoChronicle and Russian Fake Go F*** Yourself), to which I am grateful. Both for materials and for their struggle.