Ukraine killed ethnic Russians in Donbas: selection of world media fakes and manipulations  

Espreso TV reports.

According to the Center for Countering Disinformation, on May 9, one fake and one manipulation appeared in the world.

Manipulation: Former US Secretary of Defense Douglas McGregor wrote in X: “This notion that somehow or another Russia is permanently in the wrong and the only other thing it can do is commit suicide and withdraw it's forces from Ukraine is absurd. No one is or will pay attention to this in Moscow. Russian leadership has expressed this on multiple fronts.”

Rebuttal: The call for Russia to stop its military aggression against Ukraine is not absurd. On the contrary, Russia has illegally and unjustifiably unleashed a war that has devastating consequences not only for Ukraine but also for Russia itself. Therefore, it is the Russian Federation that can stop this war by withdrawing its troops from the territory of Ukraine and ceasing the shelling of Ukrainian civilians.

Disinformation: American politician Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. said: “Russia came to Crimea without firing a shot, because the population of Crimea is Russian... Then the new Ukrainian government that we (the United States - ed.) installed started killing ethnic Russians in Donbas and Luhansk, and they voted to leave and join Russia.” 

Refutation: This Russian propaganda theory has nothing to do with reality. In fact, after the overthrow of the Yanukovych regime in 2014, Russia took advantage of the chaos and sent its troops into eastern Ukraine, falsely claiming that these were self-organized separatist groups. Russian troops then seized the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and declared the creation of the so-called LPR and DPR.

• Earlier, the Russians launched a fake that the “Kyiv regime” was taking out its anger on civilians in Donbas and Belgorod.