According to recent news on 24.02.2022, russian president Vladimir Putin requested 190'000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine - the neighbour country, former part of Soviet Union - in order to invade this country. Some scholar are wondering about his mental illness, as this request doesn't make any sense. How a famous president, at the head of Russia since 1999 can do this ?
Five minutes search on Wikipedia will give you some clue on the answer: This attack target a country that suffer a civil war since many years about the russian people living inside the territory. Both countries signed a common peace agreement in 2014, and their president are still negotiating.
Ukraine and Russia, ennemies or friends ? What is recent history of both countries ? What is mainstream media content about the event ? Ẁhat is social media content ? What is local people testimony ? is there propaganda ?
The first facts come from an independant US reporter, living in Ukraine since years, who publish his reports on his own Youtube channel.
Context - Ukraine from 1992 to 2014
The current Ukraine country border was almost completely drawn in 1922 by Lenin. Initially for the Ukraine Soviet Republic - that was member of Soviet Union up to 1992. Following the break of the Soviet Union, the new country Ukraine was created using the same border as before. This very large country is two times the size of Germany. The ukrainian people - that gave name of the country - is spread more or less in full current Ukraine territory. The people have their own language: ukrainian.
But the limit of expansion of ukrainian people doesn't fit the one of the country. There is people inside current Ukraine border that are not ukrainian and do not speak their language, but rather russian. These are typically russian families settled in Ukraine since decades - before 1992. In some place in the country, majority of the local people are russian. This is the case in Crimea, and in Eastern part of the country, in Donbass valley, close to cities of Donetsk, Mariupol and Sevastopol. There are also mixed families - with one parent speaking russian and one speaking ukrainian, and many people in the country speak both languages.
People living in Ukraine are not aligned regarding relationship with neighbor countries: Russia and EU countries. People speaking russian favor more close contact with Russia, while people speaking ukrainian favor entering the EU. Neighbor states - Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova are already EU members.
There is twitching in Ukraine regarding relationships to neighbor since 2010. There were protests and riots. President Ianukovitch was kicked-out. Twitching increase in 2012 when government stated that russian in not a country language anymore. There have been rebellion in area where most people speak russian - like in Donetsk area. There are large protests and government was kicked-out. This was the Euromaidan revolution of 2013.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Euromaidan_and_the_Revolution_of_Dignity
2014 - war and peace agreement
In 2014, a passenger airliner flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed in Ukraine after being shot by mistake by a missile. The airplane was shutdown by missile damage and crashed close to Donetsk, all the 280 passengers - mostly dutch people - died on the crash. People in the world were astounded to discover there is war in Ukraine and the fighters have heavy weapons able to destroy a plane located 10 km away. What happended before ?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17
Between November 2013 and February 2014, there were massive protests against the government, at Maidan Square in Kiev. Current president Yanukovych was kicked out by protesters. Leading to uprising of people who supported him - and do not support the protesters.
A referendum to leave Ukraine and join Russia was run in 2014 in Crimea peninsula - an island like ukrainian territory on the Black Sea. 90% of the people who voted choose to join Russia. When russia government obey this wish and pick ownership of the territory, european medias reported... that Russia is invading Crimea.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_status_referendum
Same year, russian president - Vladimir Putin - as well as ukrainian, french and german presidents - Petro Poroshenko, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande have signed a common agreement aimed to restore peace in Ukraine. This agreement signed in Minsk support ceasefire, removal of weapons in the country, political neutrality of Ukraine, and self-definition - local people in Ukraine regions can vote their prefered owner country.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minsk_agreements
7 years later, while sad images arrive from Ukraine, the news from Crimea are related to soccer games, music and dance show.
A similar referendum was run in Donbass area, in Eastern Ukraine. A large majority of local people voted they prefer to be a independent country - the Donetsk Republic. The country have never been recognized by Ukraine nor by Russia.
18.02.2022 Donetsk Republic government requested to evacuate the area, because of an upcoming shelling from ukrainian army. Two days later, Vladimir Putin signed the recognition of Donetsk Republic, that include a military treaty with russian army.
Ukraine society
On 29th March, the Consortium News journal publish an article written by two Ukrainian scholars who have root in Kharkov - North-East Ukraine. They describes how the country evolved since independency in 1992, the Maidan revolution in 2013, Zelinsky election and war.
We learnt that, prior to be elected as a president, Zelinsky was a character in a popular Ukrainian TV series. This show make him famous, and was his unofficial election campaign. Almost unknown from outside world before being elected, he has then become a celebrity on US media. He is depicted as a tireless hero fighting against barbarian from the East. Reality is less flattering: he was elected with 73% of support, but people approval sunk below 30% after he applies some deeply unpopular policies.
Author said that Ukraine is a highly divided country, with two different views of "what is an Ukrainian ?" Opinion of people in western end of the country is completely different from opinion on eastern end: ethnic Ukrainian vs eastern Slavic. The view as ethnic Ukrainian focus on language and culture of Ukrainian ethnic group, and is popular in western part of the country. The eastern Slavic group focus on two ethnic groups having their language and culture - Ukrainian and Russian, and is considered as normal in east and south of the country.
However, people are less concerned about these two definition that about economic issues, she said. On political divorce from Russia in 1992, many people expected economic situation will improve, but it never went, and the economic has change to the worse. In his TV show, prior to be elected, Zelinsky promised he will improve the situation in a week, but this never happens. Now priority of the population is to survive, their main concern is about security and they are fleeing to Europe. She also said that Russian invasion consolidated people, and there are now people from South of the country who write in Ukrainian language for the first time.
She also said that following Maidan revolution in 2014, which many people from South do not support, many Maidan supporters labeled these people as 'sovki' that denote backwardness and barbarism. The more you go the East side, the more you will find people who do not support Maidan revolution. 75% of people in Donetsk and 80% of people in Crimea do not support Maidan revolution.
She said that Western companies entered the country step by step since 1992 independency. But since Maidan revolution in 2014, people from the West gained high ranked positions and push country to their own expectation, rather the one of the population - especially anti-Maidan. This lack of respect for anti-Maidan Ukrainian by members of "international community" contributed to escalation to a civil war in 2015, and lead to the disaster we can see in 2022.
She said president Zelinsky requested to shut down a few oppositional TV channels in 2021 and beginning of 2022 - just before the war. Dozen of independent journalists, bloggers and analysts were arrested. He then signed a decree to enforce all Ukrainian TV channels to broadcast a single narrative - the pro-governmental view of the war. Zelinsky argued some military reasons, but these ban started before the war.
Since 2021 the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) is in charge of sanctions against political opponents, including deputies and their family members. Their properties have been confiscated. Beginning of 2022 11 political parties have been banned by NSDC following a government decree. According to Ukraine constitution, NSDC mission is to co-ordinate and control the activity of bodies of national security and defense, which have nothing to do with sanction on political opponents.
Mainstream media content
During almost 2 months, european media published on a daily basis very sad images from Ukraine - bunches of ruins. The news reported mass killing of population with many people wounded or dead, but...
There is no photo of wounded people - with bandage and scars and no casket. On some video we can see quiet people walking back home holding a full shopping bag across ruins covered by snow - it's end of the winter. What's wrong ?
If there have been a recent blast, then the ruins will be hot, smoking, snow will melt, and people will be scared. Snow on the ruins and people behaviour suggest these ruins are here since a while and are part of the landscape.
While Russia attack started 3 weeks ago, Ukraine suffer a civil war since years. According a video reported in 2016 by french reporter Anne-Laure Bonnel, there was already ruins fields 6 years ago. On that report we can hear the blasts, we see people lying on the ground, we can see collapsed and screwed up buildings. Local people report there are mines on the ground, and people being murdered on the roads. But russian army was not yet there.
If you search for interviews of wounded civilian, you will find there is almost no one on the mainstream media. There is neither an interview of people living on the war area, nor an interview of refugees that arrives in my country. There is a few interviews of refugees on russian TV channels, and no one is complaining about Vladimir Putin. The guy was doing a show on the brand new Moscow stadium, were 200'000 people applause.
https://twitter.com/InfoHugoQuentin/status/1504832975501938690?t=sP0W17WuxTNdMqU2L3EbMg&s=19
Starting after 6 weeks of war, and 4 millions of refugees leaving Ukraine - mostly to Poland, we start to find a few interviews of that people. They basically describe their personal life, and do not speak about politics - are the interviews truncated ? But we learned from these interviews that Kiev TV headquarter was destroyed, as well as Kiev military airport. We also learn that mens are prohibited to leave the country - they have to work as soldiers.
Meanwhile in Europe there are more and more protests to support Ukraine people - there was one in my city. There are claims to boycott russian products and claims for a sentence of International Criminal Court. Did you say a sentence ?
In Europe, the debate started on 24.02.2022 when media reported that russian army invading Ukraine. Who first pronounce the word "invade" ? Putin ?
No, it's United-States president Joe Biden, who pronounce this word. If it would be a case on criminal court, what will be the first step held by the court ? the court will ask the charged people to defend itself. Media do not do this ! The media immediately stated Vladimir Putin is actually invading Ukraine country, but what is Putin response about this ?
At 02.03.2022 UNO's human right meeting, Sergey Lavrov, spokesman of Russia government stated that the country perform a military operation (cite) to hunt neo-nazi soldiers located in Ukraine. This key statement was almost never reported by european media and most of the attendees in this meeting left the room. Three weeks later the russian ambassador in Switzerland was invited by swiss TV channel RTS and give exactly the same discourse.
One month after russian army entered Ukraine, a french reporter arrives at Mariupol, a large harbour on the Azov Sea, in the center of the war zone in the Donbass area. The guy is meeting russia army. The travel was long and complex, due to closing of airlines, border closing, frequent police checks, and 1600 km of workaround. He reported what he saw close to the russian army, and this doesn't match at all what is reported on mainstream media. More details later in this post.
Meanwhile, USA and EU, listening about invader, decide to stop as much as possible business with Russia. They freezed bank account owned by rich russian people, closed offices, and frozen the project of a new gas pipeline between Russia and Germany - through the Baltic Sea. Russian airplanes are grounded because of no-flight zone in Europe. What is russian people opinion about this ? they are angry against western people but not against Vladimir Putin. And the war didn't stop, but the oil price dramatically increased in Europe.
In middle of march 2022, Vladimir Putin choose that russian gas purchase must be paid using ruble, rather that euros or dollars. What's the reason ?
The reason is, due to blames decided by EU banks - closing of Swift service and freezing of ruble bank accounts, there are limitations to convert euro to ruble, hence gas suppliers in Russia are not anymore able to receive money for the product they have sold. So Putin decide to change trading rule, so that gas consumer in Europe get disturbed by blames chosen by their own government. Self goal !
Context: 75% of gas extracted from Russia is sold in Europe. There are pipelines in Ukraine, and one pipeline in the Baltic Sea (Nord Stream). One prominent gas consumer in Europe is Germany, because the country energy program is to replace nuclear power plants by gas power plants. In Serbia and Hungary 100% of gas is imported from Russia.
On social media
Meanwhile on social media - in particular on Twitter, news and counter news are continuously popping up. On one side large media companies - newspapers and TV channels - exhibit sad pictures of screwed up buildings, indicating this is due to russian invaders. On the other side Twitter users publish video where we can see ukrainian people giving a hug to russian soldiers, ukrainian people beating other ukrainian people, and rescued people who indict Azov soldiers.
https://twitter.com/Laurenc78466182/status/1505653578035310596?t=1S27wW2XjRAsWPVM2ZM7vQ&s=19
Btw, who is Azov ? (cyrillic alphabet A3OB). It is a bataillon of voluntary soldiers. Some of them are proud to have a nazi swastika tattoo on their skin. The bataillon is servicing ukrainian government.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
One of the news reported, is that Mariupol hospital was shot by russian army, and doctors and sufferers were killed. Illustrated by a pregnant woman lying on a hand-barrow and having blood spots on the face. Some Twitter users stated she is an ukrainian performer, that nazi soldiers take control of the hospital and kicked-out doctors and sufferers and then make it their new headquarters before the assault by russian army.
A few weeks later, and interview of this lady has been published on Youtube. She told that the photo was shot without her consent by Associated Press reporters. They also did a - with consent - interview, that was not published. She told she join the hospital to give birth and get some scars on the face following a blast on the windows. She told the ukrainian army went here to use the safety power generator, take control of the hospital while doctors, mothers and babies sit on the basement.
A video record from a french policeman, living in Donetsk since years, have been published on Twitter. The record is in french with subtitles in russian. He told that the supposed assault of Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, reported in newspapers as being done by russian army was actually a flare launch by ukrainian army. He also told that the supposed assault of Kiev theater was actually a Tochka-U missile bombing in Donetsk.
There is also many messages published by new Twitter accounts, registered beginning of 2022. They have a yellow / blue flag as logo - the ukrainian flag. They constantly report frightfulness, stating this was done by russia army without providing any evidence of it. Sometimes they add a link to a news report or pictures that look like a photo album of ruins and screwed up buildings.
While some publication on Twitter reported a large set of screwed up and collapsed building with the title "Mariupol", you can find video reports of russian army distributing food to people living in Mariupol, and you can notice on this video the building are not damaged at all.
https://twitter.com/Skeptikof/status/1507059488746086403?t=GJFzPkWCsl41fRfzVF2uLA&s=19
A reporter have meet russian army
Three weeks after russian army entered Ukraine, a french reporter - Erik Tegnér - arrive on the battlefield to meet russian army. His report of what he seen in Mariupol is available on Youtube and have never been reported by mainstream media.
"They all claim they know what is happening in Ukraine, but they have never been there". This is the first sentence in the video report.
In this report, he told that many russian soldiers are from Chechnya. They are here to provide help to Donetsk Republic (DPR) army. DPR is a new country, created in 2014 by split of Ukraine. This new country was recognized by Vladimir Putin two days prior to russian army arrival. Russian and DPR army are fighting together against same enemy: the Azov bataillon. Chechnya soldiers are famous because of their prior experience on city battle - jihadi in Grozny.
The reporter notice that most of - very strong - building of Mariupol are not destroyed. Some of them are even unbroken. Then he meet a local lady who start to relate her recent life. She said that ukrainian soldiers prevented her to escape - they put a panzer on from of the door. Then when russian soldiers arrived, the ukrainian soldiers run away to hide them in the building, and russian soldiers requested local people to evacuate "there will be shots, please flee now".
We learn from this report that ukrainian soldiers are reluctant to fight on the country side - where there is no one - and prefer to stay in cities where there are civilians. Because they will be protected against airplane shots, and civilians will dispose the enemy to shot. They will launch anti-panzer missiles from the apartments.
The reporter is then travelling to Mariupol, where there have been very strong battle. Mariupol is as large as Geneva - 500'000 inhabitants. It's the second largest city of DPR. There is a harbour on Azov Sea, a steel factory and airport. The reporter is then crossing cars with a white band that leave the city. The while band indicate there are kids in the car. Then he saw a wreck panzer, with the Pravy Sektor flag - an ukrainian fascist party.
The reporter crossed people. They are shocked and filled with horror, they just spent two weeks in basement bunkers. They are cold and hungry. Some of them get sick, some went crazy. Temperature is -5°C, it's freezing and snowing, house are destroyed and heating is out of order. One old lady went back to her apartment to catch the cat and some belonging "we get bored of this war" she said.
The reporter then arrive at humanitarian corridor of Mariupol. Here mens are strictly checked, as soldiers hide them between civilians. They have to remove their shirt to proof they don't have any swastika tattoo nor any stamp they were holding a weapon on their arm or a bullet proof shirt. Soldiers that give up have to use a different queue - they will be shake down and their weapons will be destroyed.
The russian army is now controlling 70% of city area, but there are still places - like in the industry zone - under control of ukrainian soldiers, in particular the Azov bataillon. There are also british and georgian mercenaries. The less decided soldiers have surrender, while the most decided will continue up to the bitter end. We speak about 5000 remaining soldiers, out of 20'000 one month ago. Some have surrender, some other flee or get wounded. The city is besiege and there is no way to get new weapons.
The battle is not yet finished in Mariupol, but there are already trucks and panzers travelling to the next city: Donetsk.
Note: most soldiers in Ukraine do not work for Ukraine army - official government service. They are employees of military companies that provide them salary, training and tools (cloths and weapons), with the sponsorship of far-right parties. These companies hire people not only from Ukraine, but from Europe and US as well.
Interview with victims
Patrick Lancaster is an independant US reporter living in Ukraine since years. He is recording interviews of war victim, like womens and childs in refugee camp. He is speaking russian.
The first lady he meet - Yulia - tell than if she is here - in the refugee camp the video was recorded - this is thanks to russian army, who suggested a safe place. Prior to this she spent 3 weeks in building basement.
She describe the beginning of the war: on 1st. March there was a monster blast. The ground was shaking, the building have been shot. It was 1 am, and we were sleeping. We pick some carpets, and continue to sleep in the corridor - behind 2 walls. A few days later we moved to the basement. we left only to get fire, and pick bottles of water. The light, power, heating and Internet connection was out of order.
She tell that at hospital maternity, there are some ukrainian soldiers. She tell the soldiers explain the city will be honour as a heroe. What's the point, as everything is destroyed here ? she tell.
The reporter is asking what she expect to do next. She tell she doesn't know yet, maybe escape to Ukraine or Russia. She explain that status of Donetsk Republic - where she is living - is responsibility of graduated political people, while simple people just expect to be safe, eat, drink and grow their children.
She tell she is employee of Mariupol hospital. In fact one of the city hospitals, as there are 3 - 2 of them are out of order. The last hospital is still open. In the basement there is around 160 people, including doctors, mothers and newborn babies. The reporter then ask about a hospital under control by Azov bataillon. She answered that some neighbour have been kicked-out of their flat by Azov soldiers. The soldiers take control of the building, and hide them on the 9th floor. Next days there have been shots and fire there.
The reporter ask if she like the place she sit now - the refugee camp controlled by russian army. She tell they are friendly, give food and drinks, and offer cookies to the kids. She feel safe and can sleep in a warn place. She said this is more comfortable than in basement - that are cold and polluted.
Then the reporter meet a second woman, Oksana, in a kindergarten close to Mariupol. She is there, with her colleague because her apartment is destroyed. She said the russian army helped her to evacuate, unlike the ukrainian army. She said the basement bunker is not strong enough to protect from bombs. She tells some people tried to flee the building and were shot. She tells ukrainian army prevent people to evacuate. She said there is nothing left here now, this is government responsibility to help people, but they don't care (cite).
The reporter then ask what she expect to do now. She tell she expect to meet some relative in Russia. "we are the same people" she said. She tell she will prefer to return home, but this not possible as everything is destroyed, and no one plan to restore. She said she subscribed to travel to Russia and is waiting the turn. She said womens and kids are living in temporary places, while mens sleep in cars. Mens distribute foods to people and pets.
The third woman to get an interview, Lena, tells she spent one month in building basement because her apartment windows were destroyed by a bomb. There was no power and no water, they have to eat snow and drink grubby water from the heaters - they give it to children as well. She tell Azov soldiers were shooting them. Reporter ask for details "Azov ?". She said Azov soldiers were in the courtyard, and they use civilian as human shields, as they know russian army will not shot on civilians. They go hide in the buildings, pull-out inhabitants, or use them as shield and shot everywhere.
And she continue the story: every day they destroy, burn and shoot people. If you light a fire outside, they will shoot; as there is no power, there is no other way to cook the water from the heaters and prevent to get poisoned. Then she tells that an elderly woman was killed by a shot, and it was not possible to bury and the corpse was staying in the basement. The reporter then ask her opinion about Azov. "They are just thugs and zombies, their aim is to kill people and destroy the city, and they do it, nothing more". Reporter then ask if they are ukrainians, she answer: yes, yes, they are ukrainians.
The reporter then said that in western Ukraine, Europe and USA we say that Azov is helping people ? She responded: No, they never did it, i don't know if someone went to help us, but Azov they kill, burn and destroy, that's all.
The reporter then ask if she has some news from the relatives. She said her father is old and cripple and she don't know if he is still alive or he was killed or burned. She said she have no news from his brother for a while, and recently she get some news that he escaped and is now in Europe. Thanks God he is alive and safe.
The reporter then ask "what Europe should learn about this war ?". She said they don't read the news, as there is no connection, no newspapers, and they don't get any information from outside world.
Mass murder in Bucha
On 3rd of April, mainstream media report a mass murder in Bucha, a city located close to Kyiv. On video reports we can see plenty of corpses lying on the street. The media reports 300-400 people killed, and indict the russian army. But...
https://twitter.com/baronessedulac/status/1510607777793724425?t=ztBBfBFM46Zv8FHtL96BqQ&s=19
On the video we can notice all the bodies have a white armband. What's this ? It's an indication added by russian army on civilian who worked for them. On another video, recorded 4 days earlier - 31th of March, we can see Bucha mayor smiling face, happy to announce that russia army left the city, and there was no victim.
A few days before, there was an announce from russian army that they will move to Donetsk - 800 km away from Bucha.
The day the mass murder was reported, i have notice more that 300 messages on Twitter - in french. The message are send by around 20 people in Ukraine. All messages are bitwise identical, including the same spelling error. The message have been sent to famous french people and companies, including in unrelated discussions - example: discussion related to Eric Zemmour candidate president.
One of the news is that EU members and Switzerland authorities will tighten sanctions to Russia following this mass murder. European authorities are soo stupid that they will sanction a country without any evidence it is guilty ? looks to be the case :-(
Sebastien Faure is a reporter from swiss TV channel RTS who traveled to Bucha. He reported the killed people are only mens, they have tied hands - like prisoners, and were killed by point blank range shoot. In his message he tell that people were killed by russian army, and local population speak about Safari.
https://www.rts.ch/play/tv/-/video/-?urn=urn:rts:video:12990900
What is Safari ? It's an ukrainian bataillon. On 2nd of April, the ukrainian newspaper lb.ua reported a police statement: Safari is doing a cleaning (cite) operation against people who worked for russian army - army who left 3 days ago.
https://en.lb.ua/news/2022/04/02/12441_special_forces_regiment_safari.html
The same day New York Times publish a satellite view of Bucha, shot on 19th of March - two weeks prior to the mass murder - that show-up human bodies exactly at same place as on mass murder video. Let's suppose the body were here since 2 weeks, what will be their state ? probably rotten, eaten by flies, dogs and raptors. But looking on murder videos, corpses look fresh, they still have pink skin, and are still dry, while it was raining - the road is wet.
Propaganda
Many press release and Twitter messages mention russian propaganda. What is propaganda ?
War propaganda work same way as advertisement: properly chosen and prepared messages in a way to lead the reader to hate some people - that will become an enemy. The messages typically highlight crimes and unfairness - real or fake - and associate them to a selected enemy.
Pictures and words are carefully chosen, there are banned words and topics. Interview with victims are typically truncated, summaries are unfair and often lying. One of the most despicable lies in propaganda is the switch of responsibilities: the attacker is described as a victim, and the victim as an attacker.
The propaganda messages are them widely spread using all possible news channels: TV, newspapers, Twitter and Facebook until to lead to a monopoly of the ideas, giving the illusion of a consensus that the readers will admit as being the truth.
This description looks similar to current mainstream media content about russian invasion. We can notice european country take actions against Russia - as it was the aggressor - and there are political talks about increase of military budget. On the other side, the russian government complain to be a victim of european sanctions and starts trade negotiation with countries outside of Europe like Brasil, China, India and United Emirates.
