Donbas
Friday 11 October 2019
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"While the story might seem humorous at first glance, there’s nothing funny about being catfished by your own defensive alliance, or so we’re told. In fact, according to NATO’s Center for Strategic Communication, located in Riga, Latvia, the test revealed that the alliance must do more to protect its naive troops from… Russia."
While the technology may seem novel, there is nothing particularly unusual about this cybersecurity exercise. The fake social media accounts are the cyber equivalent of troops playing the “enemy” in traditional exercises. Russia has taken similar measures with its military. -
“We don’t have any kind of relationship with PMC Wagner.”
Apart from earlier evidence of Wagner mercenaries operating in CAR, the document shown in the TV segment displayed a medal issued to Wagner fighters. -
"The Contact Group’s meeting was focused on the agreements that the aides to the leaders of Russia, Germany, France and Ukraine had reached during recent consultations in Berlin, which particularly stipulated that a document on the implementation of the ‘Steinmeier formula’ be signed at today’s meeting so that the disengagement of forces may begin near the Petrovskoye and Zolotoye settlements. However, the Ukrainian delegation refused to sign the document, putting preparations for a Normandy Four summit at risk of failure."
Ukraine has already agreed to the so-called “Steinmeier formula” in principle, according to its foreign minister. TASS’s anonymous source left out key aspects of the “Steinmeier formula.” -
"I think that eventually western colleagues will come to understating(sic) that the strict observance of international law will substantially fortify the global and regional security and stability.”
Russia has been responsible for some of the most flagrant violations of international law in recent history, including the invasion and annexation of part of Ukraine. -
“We are not responsible for the Ukraine’s crisis. We did not support the unconstitutional coup in Ukraine, and we did not provoke the reaction of part of the country’s population to these actions... ...as for Crimea, the Crimean people made a decision, voted. The question is closed as a matter of history, there is no going back to the previous system, absolutely not.”
Putin’s claims have been proved false, repeatedly. We cite seven fact checks, already conducted, by Polygraph.info. -
“In fact, only his compatriots could have dealt with him - both Russian Chechens and “Ichkeria” militants, hiding in Europe from criminal prosecution [in Russia].”
Likely falseChechens “hiding” from Russia in Europe would not ask to speak with the Russian EmbassyThe suspect in the murder investigation arrested by the court in Berlin demanded to talk with representatives of the Russian Embassy – a request that is highly unlikely to be made by Chechen separatists “hiding” from Russia in Europe. -
“In these circumstances, the Soviet Union had to go it alone to ensure its national security and sign a non-aggression pact with Germany. This forced move made it possible to better prepare for the coming war with the aggressor. Today, it is worth reminding everyone that our country made a decisive contribution to defeating the Hitler war machine and liberating Europe and the world from Nazism. Had the efforts been joined in the pre-war period, the many victims could have been avoided.”
Lavrov is partially correct about Anglo-French reluctance to enter into a collective security pact with the USSR, but he leaves out the extent of Moscow’s cooperation with Hitler and its increasing economic transactions with Nazi Germany after the signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement. -
"By the results rarely anybody could compete with my battalion. All we had been doing was simply a pure mayhem. And this especially makes me laugh because of the attacks on me, especially the ones about how I'm a 'fake field commander.' No one, not one field commander, has got such results as I have. I can’t even talk about it, but one day the documents will surface and everybody will learn at which locations there were most human losses and that my battalion was there."
Zakhar Prilepin was deputy commander of a "battalion" formed in 2016, well after the last major combat operations in Donbas. He spent much of his time in Donetsk hosting a TV show. A former battalion leader claimed it was not a combat unit. -
“Turchynov said that it is necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge. Perhaps lunatics can be found who will try to do that. In that case, Ukraine will cease to exist as a territory that considers itself a state.”
The former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, did not say it was necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge; he said Ukraine’s new Neptune cruise missile is capable of demolishing it. -
"#Ukraine’s language law comes into force, prohibiting Russian from being spoken by doctors and teachers. Clear violation of human rights and #MinskAgreements."
Ukraine’s new language law does not prohibit doctors from using Russian or any other language with a patient. Doctors can be penalized only if they refuse to speak Ukrainian. -
“The lack of critical thinking is particularly puzzling given the fact that rebel forces in eastern Ukraine have never been associated with the neo-Nazis, while the government in Kiev has relied heavily on so-called volunteer battalions, composed of Ukrainian nationalists and foreign neo-Nazi sympathizers, to do the fighting.”
After a missile was seized in raids on Italian neo-Nazis, RT accused Western media of anti-Russian bias for reporting the extremists had fought with Russian-separatists in eastern Ukraine. But RT itself "skipped fact-checking" when denying that neo-Nazis are waging war on Russia's behalf in Donbas. -
“Even before they examine, they already said Russia. And now they said they have proof. It is very difficult for us to accept that.”
The evidence points to Russian culpability. Russia was blamed early because its forces had already shot down aircraft and the Ukrainian army was fighting an enemy that didn’t have air support. Russia produced multiple false narratives about the incident almost immediately after it happened.