Russian channel NTV told its audience that Ukrainian soldiers are unilaterally violating the ceasefire agreements in Donbas. In particular, according to them, ‘Right Sector’ shot 30 deserters who decided to join the separatists. ‘Right Sector’ denies the allegations. Besides, the NSDC assures: Ukraine is adhering to the peace agreements, the separatists and Russian soldiers are the ones who are violating them.
The Russian media, in particular NTV channel, accuse the Ukrainian side of violating the Minsk ceasefire agreement. According to them, official Kyiv continues to accumulate troops in Donbas and fire at residential areas.
“The ‘rebels’ already warned: Kyiv will take advantage of the ceasefire to regroup. It turns out that so far the ceasefire is unilateral. However, there have been steps forward: today Kyiv and the ‘rebels’ agreed to exchange 30 prisoners to begin with,” reports Anatomy of the Day program on NTV channel.
The anchor than gives the floor to reporter Dmitry Zaytsev, who has to report on important news from the so-called ‘rebellion headquarters’ of the separatist mercenaries. According to the NAT journalist, 30 fighters of the Ukrainian army decided to join the so-called ‘rebellion,’ however “they were shot by their very own.” This was reported to NTV by so-called ‘Defense Minister’ of ‘DNR’ Vladimir Kononov.
“30 Ukrainian servicemen came to Horlivka, they tried to join the ‘rebels,’ to surrender. However, they were shot using machine guns. According to preliminary information, it was ‘Right Sector’,” says the journalist in the frame.
When talking about this, the reporter is standing before a backdrop of a night city, not on the front line by far, and there are no bodies around him at all. Therefore there is no visual evidence or testaments made by eyewitnesses added by NTV, they offer us to take the so-called ‘DNR Minister’s’ word for it.
‘Right Sector’: we have grown tired of negating Russian media lies
According to Yury Mindiuk, ‘Right Sector’ representative, the organization “has already grown tired of negating the lies of Russia’s propaganda apparatus.”
“We deny everything. We do not participate in any punishment actions. We are fighting for the liberation of the country within the volunteer Ukrainian corps and other volunteer units. So we are maintaining our ideals on our soil,” he commented.
Mindiuk also added that at the moment the majority of the volunteer Ukrainian corps is active in the village of Pisky near Donetsk. According to him, there are ‘Right Sector’ organization members in Horlivka, however they don’t take part in combat, but are there as ‘private agents.’
Mindiuk noted that such untrue Russian media messages are part of the informational war which is going on against ‘Right Sector.’ Mindiuk is convinced that this is done in order to intimidate Russians under Russian media influence with the organization’s name.
The Ukrainian NSDC also denies the information that Ukraine is violating the ceasefire conditions. In particular, NSDC information center spokesman Andriy Lysenko stated that since the declaration of the ceasefire, it was the separatists are Russian soldiers who made almost a hundred attacks on ATO positions.
Source: Radio Liberty
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina