We are in the midst of an information war, and one side’s public statements can easily create a narrative powerful enough to deal a near-fatal blow to the other. Brussels correspondent Joe Burns reports.
When a Russian Il-76 transport plane appeared to fall from the skies over Russia’s Belgorod region, initial reports cited Ukrainian intelligence sources and claimed that it was Kiev’s military that shot down the plane.
But soon after, reports from Russia, including from the Ministry of Defense, began to suggest that the heavy-lift ship was not carrying S-300 missiles, but rather Ukrainian prisoners of war, who had been scheduled as part of an exchange between Moscow and Kiev. Ta.
Russia Today editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, who is subject to international sanctions, quickly published a list of the 65 Ukrainian military personnel believed to have been on board the plane.
This alone does not provide sufficient evidence to confirm that there were actually 74 people on board the Il-76 that crashed to the ground, including six crew members and three companions.
If Russia really wanted to prove that Ukraine had indeed shot down a jet carrying its prisoners, it could easily have released videos and photos showing Ukrainians aboard the plane. .
Alternatively, Moscow could have released details proving that Ukraine was aware of how the prisoners would be transported, which is often an important detail when prisoner exchanges are agreed.
If the Kremlin’s claims are true, it poses not only a domestic problem for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, but also an international problem, as the United States and other Western allies do not want missiles fired at mainland Russia. Dew.
There is further evidence to suggest that Moscow’s claims are futile.
Photos of the wreckage of the jet on the ground show no trace of the bodies of the passengers and crew.
In 2014, when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down over Donbas, photographs of the crash scene clearly showed bodies in the wreckage.
And there’s also geolocated footage shared on social media, which the Kremlin disputes, saying it shows the shot-down taking off from Belgorod rather than landing there. are doing.
As it stands, Russia is winning the information war, as Kiev refuses to make any meaningful public statements regarding Moscow’s claims.
