Russian propaganda once again attempted to blame Ukrainian special forces for crime committed by Russian army

The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, which often creates fake news about Ukrainian military formations, has shared a post about the Kraken special forces unit. It says that the special forces, who are allegedly used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces as barrier units and also serve at checkpoints in the village of Petropavlivka, Kupiansk district, shot a car with civilians. The incident allegedly occurred because the people in the car refused to respond to the military with the slogan "Glory to Ukraine". The post was illustrated with a photo by the propagandists, who claimed that it showed bullet holes, suggesting that the military had shot civilians.

This is a fake that was created by the Russians, based on a real incident that occurred in the village of Petropavlivka, Kupiansk district. It was caused by the military of the aggressor country.  Specifically, the car was hit by a Russian kamikaze drone. This information was reported by Serhiy Bolvinov, Head of the Investigative Department at the National Police in the Kharkiv region, on his social media page.

 “A Russian kamikaze drone has just killed these people. Petropavlivka, Kupiansk district - a civilian car carrying ordinary locals. There were a woman and two men inside - both men died on the spot. The woman was evacuated to the hospital. Investigations are underway to determine further details of the incident,” Bolvinov wrote on February 20.

The same version of the incident was confirmed by the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Oleh Syniehubov.

The photo provides evidence that the Russians fabricated a story about the shooting of civilians.  There are no visible traces of small arms in the photo, and based on the damage, it can be inferred that the car was hit from the outside.

The activities of the Ukrainian special forces do not correspond to the Russian version either. According to open sources, Kraken is a separate reconnaissance and sabotage unit within Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, recognized as one of the country's most capable units.

Last week, the same Telegram channel spread a fake news story aimed at discrediting the 119th separate territorial defense brigade. Then, the propagandists used a similar method by distorting the details of an incident that actually took place in Ukraine.

Dmytro Badrak