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Azov allegedly takes over a Bulgarian civilian ship: a digest of Russian propaganda of April 12

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Fakes:

  1. Azov Regiment and “fire on Russian journalists”
  2. Russia compares Ukrainians in Europe to Africans
  3. People from Moscow fear a fake saboteur from the “Right Sector”
  4. The Kremlin believes the British can do whatever they want to Zelenskyy
  5. Russia lies about “Nazis who need dead heroes”
  6. Biochemical weapons at Azovstal?
  7. Azov is accused of shelling Bulgarian ships
  8. Putin orders “not to hide anything in Ukraine”

Fake 1: Azov Regiment “shelled Russian journalists” 

The chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Aleksandr Bastrykin, instructed to investigate “the fact that Ukrainian nationalists fired on the First Channel film crew in Mariupol.” 

Of course, the propaganda suggests that the fire specifically targeted the filming crew that was spotted by neo-Nazis with the help of a UAV. The shelling from an automatic grenade launcher was targeted with the help of a UAV, and “Azov people definitely saw they were firing at reporters.” 

However, the video story of Irina Kuksenkova “whose life is no longer in danger” demonstrates a group of at least ten people with machine guns, who look rather like militants than like reporters.  

Of course, Russia’s First Channel will never tell the story of Ukrainian photo reporter Maks Levin, who was shot to death by the occupiers.

Fake 2: Ukrainians in Europe are worse than Africans

The narrative about the “unworthy” behaviour of Ukrainian refugees in Europe is actively disseminated. The propagandists don’t even bother to come up with reasons, they just use empty labels that manage to offend multiple nations at once: “Compared to the Ukrainian refugee wave, the ones from Africa and Asia will feel like a walk in the park to Europe soon…”

Fake 3: Intimidation of Moscow residents with Right Sector “saboteurs”

The FSB reports the detention of an alleged Right Sector supporter from Moscow who served in the Ukrainian army in 2017-2019 and completed NATO saboteur courses.

The special service reports that he arrived in Russia from the UK shortly before the beginning of the “special operation” in Ukraine and could be planning diversions in the Moscow region. According to the FSB, “in the Solnechnogorsk city district, a cache was found with improvised incendiary devices resembling a Molotov cocktail, a machete knife and symbols of the Right Sector, which could be used to sabotage critical infrastructure in the Moscow region.”

The question of what diversions could possibly be carried out by a NATO graduate with Right Sector allegiances using a machete and a Molotov cocktail in Moscow is largely rhetorical.

Fake 4: The Kremlin says the British can do whatever they want to Zelenskyy

The subject of the British (and the so-called Anglo-Saxons in general) is currently among the favourites for Russian propagandists. They continue to discuss the recent surprise visit of Prime Minister Boris Johnson to Kyiv. Nikolai Starikov believes that “Zelenskyy is being guarded by British special forces, which is why we don’t see Johnson’s bodyguard on his walk in Kyiv. This means the British can now do whatever they want to the president of Ukraine…”   

Fake 5: The Nazis need dead heroes to raise their morale

Russian propaganda regularly releases videos of alleged Ukrainian prisoners. Their goal is not only to call on our military to surrender, but also to show the “ruthlessness” of the UAF command.

The man in the video posing as a captive soldier claims: “They said help was near, we just had to break through towards Zaporizhia. We were simply deceived, there was no help.”

“And so they ended up simply sacrificed. The Nazis need dead heroes to raise their morale,” concludes Russian propagandist Rudenko.

Other de facto prisoners, civilian Ukrainians who were forcibly deported to Russia, are generally treated in a fascist manner. They receive postcards suggesting they should go to the Far East.

For reference, here are the adverts made by Hitler’s army in Kyiv back in the day.  

Fake 6: Biochemical weapons at Azovstal

Russian propaganda is spreading a fake that NATO scientists are making biochemical weapons at Azovstal in Mariupol.

The CEO of the enterprise Enver Tskitishvili said that “every new fake seems to hit the rock bottom, but they find new depths every time… All our enterprises in Mariupol were suspended during the first week of the invasion. The chemical reagents used by the metalworkers in the production process were destroyed on February 25, and all the necessary documents are available. We took care in advance to make sure that our enterprises would not cause a man-made or environmental catastrophe. There are no secret tunnels with biochemical laboratories at Azovstal.”

Fake 7: Azov is firing from mortars at civilian ships

Russian propagandists have spread information that “Ukrainian nationalists,” particularly Azov Regiment, allegedly captured two foreign ships in the Azov sea — Tsarevna and Lady Augusta — and are holding their crews hostage. In addition, the propagandists claim that the Azov Regiment is allegedly firing mortar fire on civilian ships, preventing the evacuation of their crews.

Information on the capture of Tsarevna was debunked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian MoD. 

“Bulgarian authorities are in constant contact with our sailors and continue joint efforts to evacuate them,” the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “The information that previously appeared in the media is not actually true.”

Fake 8: Putin orders “not to hide anything in Ukraine”

“International organizations do not want to investigate the tragedy in Bucha.” Dmitri Polyansky, Russia’s deputy envoy to the United Nations, said that “we do not actually believe any ‘independent’ investigations carried out by Western countries in Ukraine.”

On April 12, Russian President Putin said: “We must not hide anything in Ukraine, the work must be covered objectively” and called the report on the deaths of civilians in Bucha at the hands of Russian servicemen fake.

Alexander Lukashenko, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus, believes that there was a British psychological special operation in Bucha, and offers to provide “the necessary addresses, passcodes, licence plates, car brands that came to Bucha and how they did it… Together with Russian friends, we fully exposed this ugly, disgusting position of the West from the beginning until the very end.”

In reality, the need for an objective investigation of war crimes in Kyiv oblast is proven at least by the fat that over 40 countries have supported the relevant investigation by the ICC. A group of gendarmes even arrived from France. Of course, Russian propagandists immediately came up with an explanation that the gendarmes’ actual purpose would be to hide the crimes of “Ukrainian Nazis.”

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