DISINFO: Russia is only attacking valid military targets
SUMMARY
The targets of Russian military strikes were directly or indirectly related to Ukrainian military capabilities, and no social objects were attacked. Not a single Russian strike was carried out against targets on the territory of Kyiv, and all the destruction reported from the Ukrainian capital was caused by the downing of foreign and Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles deployed in Kyiv's residential areas.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative following air strikes conducted in Ukraine by the Russian military targeting critical infrastructure such as the electricity grid. The article claims that these strikes served a military purpose, and that Russia is only attacking military targets, not civilians.
In reality, Russian missiles hit several residential areas. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday expressed his shock at the unabated human suffering in Ukraine, as highlighted by continuing Russian missile and drone strikes against critical infrastructure on a broad scale.
“Millions are being plunged into extreme hardship and appalling conditions of life by these strikes. Taken as a whole, this raises serious problems under international humanitarian law, which requires a concrete and direct military advantage for each object attacked,” Türk said.
According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), further missile strikes on Wednesday killed at least eight civilians, including one girl, and injured at least 45 others, among them seven children, in the city and region of Kyiv. A two-day old baby boy was killed and two doctors injured by a rocket strike that hit a hospital in Vilniansk, in the Zaporizhzhia region.
These casualties bring the total verified by HRMMU since Russia began its ongoing barrage of missile strikes and loitering munition attacks across the country on 10 October to at least 77 civilians killed and 272 injured.
This claim is a part of a wider narrative trying to downplay the Russian attacks against civilian infrastructure. Contrary to these claims the UN has recorded at least 17,023 civilian casualties since the latest armed conflict began on 24 February, including 6,655 people killed and 10,368 injured. However, the exact figures are likely to be much higher as ongoing hostilities have hindered the authorities’ ability to verify possible cases in many parts of the country.
Most of the civilian casualties are from airstrikes and explosive weapons used by Russian forces with wide area effects, including heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems. As a result, hundreds of residential buildings in many cities, including Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mariupol and Kyiv have been damaged and destroyed.
See similar narratives debunked here.