Disinfo: Ukrainian drone strike kills child in Donbas

Summary

A Ukrainian drone strike has killed a five-year-old boy in the settlement of Aleksandrovskiy in the Donbas.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the Donbas conflict.

The claim is unverified. The village of Oleksandrivske (Aleksandrovskoye in Russian media) is located 15 kilometers away from the front line. The Russian Investigative Committee announced a probe into the death of a child there reported by pro-Kremlin media. The OSCE's special monitoring mission to Ukraine did not report about any drone strike in this area.

A report by the DPR's so-called news agency, republished by pro-Kremlin media, did not provide any images of the aftermath of the attack allegedly carried out in the village of Oleksandrivske. The claim cannot be independently verified, notes AFP.

Furthermore, as Radio Svoboda notes, pro-Kremlin media outlets cannot seem to agree on the name of the village in which the attack allegedly took place. The present news item refers to the settlement as "Aleksandrovskiy," whereas previous reports rendered it as either "Aleksandrovka" or "Aleksandrovskoye."

So far, no witnesses to this alleged killing have come forward.

Contradictory accounts by local residents are available on social media, including one claiming the child was killed by an unexploded shell. At this stage, there is no hard evidence implicating a Ukrainian Army drone in the death of a child in the Donbas. For a more comprehensive overview of the operational details see here.

See here for further debunking by The Insider and StopFake.

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Rossiya 24 - YouTube (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 239
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/04/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: DNR, Donbas, Civil war, Eastern Ukraine, War crimes, Military
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In Europe, they are loudly talking of an impending war, for the first time since the war in Yugoslavia. The aggravation of the situation in Donbas, the hysteria of Kyiv, which has practically declared war on Moscow, and the US declarations that it will "not leave Ukraine" alone in its confrontation with Russia, prompt a serious consideration of military options to solve the Donbas conflict.

Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

This disinformation claim combines a few pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine.

First is that Ukraine is the aggressor in the conflict in Donbas and that Russia is never the aggressor. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Donbas. Since 2014, Russia has been actively involved in violating Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by financially and militarily backing the separation of Donetsk and Luhansk. An InformNapalm study shows that thirty-one weapons systems found in the Donbas entered service with the Russian military between 2004 and 2015 and have never been produced in, or sold to, Ukraine. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine.

Disinfo: Russia to intervene in Donbas if Ukraine boosts conflict

A ramping-up of the conflict would lead to the end of Ukraine, with the Kremlin forced to stand up for its citizens living on the territory of Donbas. In recent years, Moscow has made it much simpler for those living in Ukraine to get a Russian passport, and many have taken up the offer. Everything depends on what the scale of fighting will be. If there is, as Putin says, a Srebrenica, Russia will be forced to stand up for its citizens.

Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

This is a reappearing disinformation message accompanying the current Russia’s military build-up near borders of Ukraine and on occupied Crimea.

Russia will be forced to intervene to defend its citizens if Ukraine launches an offensive in Donbas, according to a recent statement by Dmitry Kozak, Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff. These words echo a 2019 statement by Putin, in which he compared this possibility with a massacre similar to that in Srebrenica in 1995. Bosnian Serb troops killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys back then in what is considered to be the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. Putin said that if Ukraine got control of the border between its breakaway region and Russia, local residents might be persecuted because they had been offered no security guarantees. The Russian may have forgotten, or ignores, the fact that Russia was the only member of the UN Security Council to veto the resolution in 2015 that would have described the Srebrenica massacre as "genocide".

Disinfo: EU made a mistake abandoning Sputnik-V

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Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin echoed disinformation about the EU, vaccination and the current EMA rolling review of Sputnik V, trying to link the Sputnik V authorisation process to Russophobia.

From 4 March 2021, Sputnik V vaccine is under the rolling review of the European Medicines Agency, and the decision will be fully decided on a scientific not a political basis.