Russian media has described Ukrainian soldiers who invaded Russia last week as “terrorists” enjoying human rights abuses.
Kremlin propaganda said the invasion was already failing and accused Ukrainian soldiers of fatally shooting unarmed people and using banned chemical weapons.
“Ukrainian soldiers arrived in Kursk to shoot civilians,” read the headline on the ura.ru news website above an interview with an allegedly captured Ukrainian soldier who claimed that he had been ordered to “shoot everybody on the spot”.
This unfounded allegation was reproduced across other Russian media and is part of an attempt by the Kremlin to regain control of the narrative after Ukraine’s surprise invasion last week.
Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and websites have also accused Ukrainian forces of using banned chemical weapons without evidence.
“Ukrainian Nazis used chemical weapons in the Belovsky district of the Kursk region,” said the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.
These propaganda lines have been encouraged by Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
At a meeting with his security council on Monday, Putin said that Ukrainian soldiers were indiscriminately “attacking civilians and civilian infrastructure” and “threatening nuclear power facilities”.
On Russian TV stoney-faced propagandists have produced hours of footage designed to boost Russian morale.
Their core messages are that Kyiv’s “terrorising” army is suffering “massive casualties” and that Russia’s “brave troops have stabilised the line and pushed back Ukraine’s soldiers”.
Ukraine has denied accusations that its soldiers have broken the laws of war and videos on social media showed Ukrainian soldiers celebrating their victories rather than killing civilians.
In one video, a group of Ukrainian soldiers drove through a captured village in Russia. They saw a couple of old women and struck up a conversation.
“Are you in danger?” asked one of the soldiers, before congratulating them for speaking Ukrainian even though it’s not unusual for people living in Russian villages along the border to speak the language.
“Glory to Ukraine!” he said at the end of their conversation.
“Glory!” the woman replied with a smile.
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