DISINFO: Ukrainian drone strikes in Kursk injure and kill civilians
SUMMARY
Following a large-scale attack by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), multiple fires broke out in the city of Kursk. Several residential houses and an ambulance garage were hit, with one of the UAVs directly striking an apartment building. The attack targeted civilian infrastructure, resulting in the death of an 85-year-old woman and injuries to nine others.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative 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.
Despite Russian authorities blaming Ukraine for the incident, multiple reputable media outlets, including Reuters, have noted that these claims could not be independently verified. Further undermining the credibility of the narrative, the Russian Defence Ministry, which consistently reports only the number of drones it claims to have intercepted while withholding how many were actually launched, stated that 109 drones were downed over the Kursk region overnight.
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.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukraine strikes civilians with drones in the Kherson region, that Ukrainian commanders are forcing soldiers to kill civilians in the Kursk region, that Ukrainian atrocities supplemented by the kidnapping of residents in Kursk region or that Russia does not target civilian population, Ukraine does.