DISINFO: Ukrainian fascists shelled the Kramatorsk railway station with a "Tochka U" missile system
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: de.news-front.info (archived)*
  • Date of publication: April 10, 2022
  • Article language(s): German
  • Reported in: Issue 286
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine
Tags:
Nazi/Fascist War in Ukraine

DISINFO: Ukrainian fascists shelled the Kramatorsk railway station with a "Tochka U" missile system

SUMMARY

On 8 April, Ukrainian fascists shelled the Kramatorsk railway station with a "Tochka U" missile system. People tried to evacuate the city and there was a large crowd. Kyiv succeeded in causing a large number of casualties and disrupting the evacuation.

RESPONSE

Pro-Russian disinformation narrative trying to attribute responsibility for the Russian missile attack on Ukrainian civilians in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk to Ukrainian forces.

The material and links may contain distressing/ graphic content.

Contrary to pro-Kremlin media claims, many facts indicate that Russian forces attacked the Kramatorsk railway station itself with a Tochka-U missile, killing over 57 waiting civilians and injuring over 114 civilians, according to the Governor of Donetsk Region as of 11 April 2022.

Despite claims to the contrary, the Soviet Tochka-U missile system is still in use by the Russian army, as evidenced by video footage of transports through Belarus as of March 2022.

The Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent group of military experts, found that Russia has been actively deploying Tochka-U missiles in place of the Iskander since early March. On 29 March 2022, the Belarusian Gayun community recorded of a military convoy of Tochka-U missiles with tactical V-marks deployed by the Russian Federation, north of the Ukrainian border in Belarus.

There is additional similar evidence by other Telegram-Groups observing Russian military movements, that the Tochka-U-missile is still in service in the Russian Armed Forces.

Also, according to the Conflict Intelligence Team the analysis of the trajectory of the Tochka-U missile proves that the missile was fired from the southwestern area where Russian army and illegal armed formations of the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine are located.

According to The Insider, on the eve of the attack on the Kramatorsk railway station, warnings and announcements of a missile attack in the region appeared on pro-Russian Telegram groups. According to them, Russian forces would fire at "a gathering of Ukrainian fighters" and "wagons with weapons" at the Kramatorsk railway station. Some of the groups even "recommended" locals not to visit the station the day before the attack.

The Insider reports that all of these publications were either deleted or reedited after the attack on Kramatorsk. Nevertheless, many screenshots of the reports about the imminent attack can still be found online.

On the basis of the available facts, it must be concluded that the missile attack was carried out by Russian or by the illegal armed formations of the “non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine”.

See also the EEAS-statement by the Spokesperson on the attack on train station in Kramatorsk:

"The European Union is deeply shocked by Russia's attack that struck Kramatorsk railway station on Friday and claimed lives of more than 50 people, injuring scores of others, many of them critically.

This was a brutal, indiscriminate bombing of innocent civilians, including many children, who were fleeing amid fears of another Russian onslaught against their homes and country."

Full quote here.

See for the full debunk StopFake (German) (Russian).

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Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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