DISINFO: Ukrainian drone killed a child in Donbas
SUMMARY
A child was killed when the Ukrainian army was shelling at DNR. According to the statement, the militants of the 59th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, following the criminal order of commander Henadiy Shapovalov, used an unmanned aerial vehicle equipped with an improvised explosive device. The Ukrainian militants chose the residential area of the village of Oleksandrivske near Yenakiieve as the object for the terrorist act, where they dropped an explosive device near a house.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the war in Ukraine claiming that Ukrainian army attacks civilians.
There is no evidence supporting this information. Representatives of the so-called DNR did not provide any evidence that it was a Ukrainian drone that killed the child. Military expert Oleksandr Kovalenko writes that the drone could not reach Oleksandrivske since the distance from the village to the government-controlled territory is about 30 kilometres. The OSCE Monitoring Mission did not mention this accident in its daily report on 3 April 2021.
No witnesses of a Ukrainian drone aiming at the child have come forward so far. Contradictory accounts of local residents (including that the child accidentally died because of an explosion of a shell dating from 2014-2015 when the village was on the front line) are available on social media. At this stage, it is misleading to spread the theory that a Ukrainian "drone operator" deliberately killed a child in Oleksandrivske. See a more comprehensive account of the tactical details here.
Russia always blames Ukraine for escalations in Donbas. Ukraine is not at war with millions of people from Donetsk and Luhansk as pro-Kremlin media often presents the situation. The aim is to present the situation in Eastern Ukraine as an internal conflict, ignoring irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in the region. These claims intentionally misrepresent the reality of Russia's direct and crucial important support to separatist militant groups in Eastern Ukraine. Read further debunking by the Insider and StopFake.
See similar disinformation cases in our database: the OSCE confirmed that the Ukrainian army attacks civilians; Russian expert reveals that the Ukrainian army downed flight MH17, then destroyed evidence; Ukrainian army killed a 6-years-old girl in Donbas on the Holy Trinity day; Ukrainian army targets OSCE equipment.