The intent of Russian media, which is claiming that a gunfight in Sloviansk supposedly occurred between the Right Sector and peaceful citizens is obvious — to carry out the next wave of preliminary propaganda to justify an invasion, the Deputy Secretary of the National Security Council Victoria Syumar writes on Faceboook, April 2, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.
“Reporting by Russian journalists of a supposed gunfight between the Right Sector and ‘self-defense’ units in Sloviansk is based on some ‘business cards of (Dmytro) Yarosh’ and ‘unknown weapons.’ The number of casualties that increase by the hour and some ‘evidence’ that no one has managed to see– all this is a perfect example of Russian propaganda that is now being reproduced not only by Russian media but by much of the foreign media,” Syumar says.
According to Syumar, the purpose of the propaganda is obvious:
“To show that the situation in Ukraine is getting out of control even on holidays, to expand the thesis of a ‘civil war’ in Ukraine, and to launch the next wave of ‘media preparation’ to justify an invasion, she says.
She appealed to journalists to verify their information instead of becoming instruments in the information war against Ukraine.
“Russian mass media today is the main source of misinformation about Ukraine. We are preparing appropriate appeals to the world’s leading media companies. This disinformation must be blocked and not replicated. References to Russian media should present it as an example of ‘shoddy journalism,’ given how often it reports the outright lies underlying the ideological myths that are designed to support Kremlin’s plans to conduct a war against Ukraine,” she said.
As previously reported, in the city of Sloviansk, in the Donetsk Oblast, on April 20, around 3:00, an armed conflict occurred at a checkpoint between two groups of people. As a result, one person was killed and three received gunshot wounds. The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the Right Sector in the gun battle in Sloviansk.
Translated by Anna Mostovych
