DISINFO: Russia does not target civilian population, Ukraine does
SUMMARY
There is no need to call on the Russian side for anything - we are already fighting with white gloves, our fighters are risking their lives to protect the Ukrainian civilian population. But the Zelenskyy regime has long been worse than a monkey with a grenade. In Kyiv, they understand perfectly well that Russian military targets have long been reliably protected, they only want terror. They will strike precisely at civilians.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets denying Russian war crimes and accusing Ukraine of committing atrocities. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine to deflect Russia’s responsibility for potential war crime. Russia has a well-established pattern of falsely accusing others or denying its own responsibility when confronted with war crimes and atrocities.
Accusing Ukraine of war crimes, atrocities and illicit actions without proof or through faked testimonies has been a regular practice by Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets throughout the war. These allegations are part of a strategy to discredit Ukraine and deflect attention from Russia's military aggression and human rights violations committed by Russia in Ukraine. Russia has set up filtration camps with brutal treatment in many instances.
Ukrainians are routinely treated by pro-Kremlin media as "Nazis" and terrorists committing atrocities, in order to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has a long background of falsely blaming others or denying its responsibility in face of war crimes and atrocities.
There is substantial evidence of Russian troops committing war crimes and violating the rules of war, for example their practice of positioning military assets in residential areas. The United Nations, Amnesty International and other organisations have documented numerous instances of such violations. Russia has stepped up terror against the civilian population of frontline cities in Ukraine – dozens of airstrikes per day are carried out on Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Sumy, Kherson, Odesa and other cities. The Russian military targets civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, orphanages, and churches. One of the most notorious atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine was the airstrike on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a child, and left 17 others wounded, according to official reports. The bombing of Okhmatdyt, a children’s hospital in Kyiv, is another example. There have been numerous reports of summary executions, torture and other kinds of abuse of Ukrainian POWs and civilians, committed by Russian forces. Mass graves have been discovered near Kharkiv with an estimated 1,008 dead bodies.
There is also a significant amount of evidence that Russian troops committed war crimes and atrocities in the small town of Bucha outside Kyiv. The evidence includes satellite images, photos, videos, and witness testimonies. 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. Russian troops also committed atrocities in Irpin, Borodyanka and other towns and villages outside Kyiv.
The International Criminal Court in March 2024 issued arrest warrants for two Russian commanders: the commander of Russian long-range aviation and the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet as part of an investigation into potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine committed between October 10, 2022 and March 9, 2023. The IСС suspects Russian commanders of committing war crimes of attacking civilian objects, causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as well as the crime against humanity of committing inhumane acts.
See similar disinformation cases claiming that Attacks on Russia demonstrate the terrorist nature of Zelenskyy's regime, that Ukrainian fascists kill civilians at point-blank range in Kursk, use orphans as human shields, that Ukrainian neo-Nazis are shooting residents in the Kursk region and the West remains silent, that Russia is the only country that respects the rules of war, that Ukrainians behave like terrorist militants, kidnap civilians in Kursk, that Ukrainian commanders are forcing soldiers to kill civilians in the Kursk region, that Russia never attacks civilian targets, that Russia strikes military sites, Kyiv children’s hospital hit by fragments of Western air-defence missiles, or that Claims that Russia intentionally targeted civilian objects are completely untrue.