Thread by @a_magazova

My understanding of today's war crime in #Olenivka colony, Donetsk region.
I regularly read the propaganda channels of "DNR/LNR war reporters". Therefore, I can share my observations on how they construct their information campaigns. Thread 🧵 1/13

A few days ago, these "war correspondents" began massively distributing their "interviews" with prisoners from the #Azov battalion. They all talked about committing terrible crimes against civilians (especially in Mariupol). 2/13

They confessed to everything that was attributed to them, and described in detail all the horrific crimes "committed" (I think there is no point in talking about the credibility of the information in the interviews in captivity). 3/13

Each of the captives in these videos said that they received all orders to commit these crimes directly from Zelenskyy's office. 4/13

Each publication of these "interviews" ended with a rhetorical question from the "journalist": How will Zelenskyy make excuses now? What will he tell his Western partners now after these confessions by "his" heroes? 5/13

This morning I also received the first information about the shelling of Olenivka from these propaganda channels. And the main thesis in the publications about the tragedy was: "Zelenskyy ordered the execution of Azov prisoners for telling the truth". 6/13

This thesis is massively circulated in Russian and propaganda sources of information - "Only Zelenskyy gave such an order". 7/13

The purpose of this campaign is to discredit the Ukrainian authorities in the eyes of Western partners and to suspend deliveries of heavy weapons, which are causing huge problems for the Rus. army. After all, according to the propagandists' version, it was a HIMARS strike. 8/13

In my subjective opinion, there was absolutely no objective reason for UA to strike at this facility. Zelenskyy's fear of POW stories of "criminal orders" seems absolutely absurd. As far as I know, the HIMARS system has a function to track the coordinates of the strike. 9/13

This can be used to remove all suspicion. The Russians, by committing such terrorist acts, want to break the spirit of the Ukrainians, but this always has the opposite effect. The Kremlin is forcing negotiations by force, raising the stakes. 10/13

Yesterday's castration of a Ukrainian POW with a clerical knife and today's mass murder of POWs create a situation where in the future POWs from both sides will either be eliminated immediately or will eliminate themselves rather than be taken captive. 11/13

The horror of this situation is that the Russians could not have returned the "Nazis" from Azov in a prisoner exchange. That would have been a defeat for their eight-year information war. 12/13

Their sick fantasy came up with and implemented a terrible plan to kill and maim Ukrainian prisoners and blame it on the Ukrainian authorities. All their cynicism is in one terrorist act. 13/13 #RussiaIsATerroristState

UPD. Russian Embassy in UK is publicly saying Ukrainian Azov fighters deserve execution by hanging.

There can be no excuse for such a misconduct.

Azov fighters are Ukrainian servicemen and shall be treated as POWs under IHL.