Irina Mirochnik
Russian propaganda does not stop trying to discredit Western weapons and military equipment used by Ukraine to repel Russian aggression.
Following the American Javelins, the Turkish UAVs came under information attack. The Russian media report that Ukraine has lost more of them in the last two weeks than in all the time since the beginning of the war.
In particular, Pro-Kremlin news portal Readovka stated that “the use of Turkish UAVs in Ukraine after the Karabakh war was supposed to be an advertising campaign for this “super weapon”, but something went wrong and 2- 3 Bairaktars are shot down every day”.
Russian propagandists stress that “promoted Bairaktars fail during meeting with Russian air defence systems and interceptors”.
In fact, this “Bayraktar hysteria” occurred due to the recent destruction of the Raptor-class patrol boats of the Russian Navy. This defeat is not as large-scale as the sinking of the missile cruiser “Moskva”, but for the Russian occupiers it is very sensitive.
After the signing by US President Joe Biden of a law on land-lease for Ukraine, one can expect further Russian propaganda actions, aimed at discrediting Western weapons, provided to Ukraine to counter Russian aggression.
An extremely negative reaction of the Russian authorities and propaganda is caused by the actions of the international community in support of Ukraine.
On May 10, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania passed a resolution recognizing Russia as a terrorist state and its actions in Ukraine during the invasion as genocide.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, called this decision “an extremist step towards the Russian Federation”. She added that it should be treated as a provocation, since “it has nothing to do with the desire to resolve the extremely difficult situation in Ukraine”.
At the same time, Zakharova did not mention that such a situation in Ukraine became possible only as a result of the aggressive policy of the Kremlin and its maniacal desire to destroy Ukraine as a state.
Russian propaganda continues to spread false information about high precision Russian weapons, which hit military targets only.
In particular, this applies to cruise missiles, which allow the Russian occupiers to shell the territory of Ukraine on a daily basis. Having failed to achieve significant success on land, the Russian military leadership switched to the tactics of destroying Ukraine’s military and civilian infrastructure.
In this context it is worth to note that Russian military have started to use old Soviet X-22 air-based missiles (code-name “Buria” (Storm), which are launched from Tu-22M3 strategic bombers. According to the Soviet military doctrine, these missiles were intended to “destroy American aircraft carriers”.
The first sample was created in 1961. In total, more than 1,000 X-22 were produced in the USSR. Technically, missile preparation for launch is very dangerous due to highly toxic fuel. Over time, they became obsolete and were kept in the storages.
Due to the outdated design, the accuracy of these missiles also raises big questions (they can fly away up to 120 meters from the target).
However, Russian troops still use these old Soviet missiles, despite the fact that they hit civilian objects and residential buildings to a greater extent.
Regarding Russian troops losses in Ukraine, Moscow doesn’t want to recognize and take away its “cargo 200” from Ukraine and attributes similar behaviour to Kyiv.
The method is not new and has long been used in propaganda. In particular, Zakhar Prilepin, Russian writer and politician, posted a false message, in which he cited fictional facts of the deaths of Ukrainians in the war and concluded that “the main thing for Kiev – do not bring them home in the coffins somewhere in the West of Ukraine. And it will be more difficult to mobilize new ones… Needless to say, we are trying to do the exact opposite”.
Such messages have only one goal in mind: to silence another documentary evidence that Russia stubbornly does not want to take its killed troops from Ukrainian territory.
Qatar’s Al Jazeera has published a report showing a refrigerator car filled with bodies of Russian military. The footage shows a body in military uniform, a tag of a bulletproof vest made in Russia, insignias of its troops and marauding gold jewellery found on the dead soldiers. The report was shot in the Kyiv region.
In addition, it is worth to remind that, at the beginning of March, Ukraine’s Railway Agency provided 20 refrigerated cars for removal of the lost Russian military.
14-05-2022
WriterIrina Mirochnik,President at IMMER GROUP / Doctor of Philosophy in Law (PhD)
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