Information warfare again. This Tuesday marks the 209th day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the return of a macabre ball game. kyiv and Moscow send each other back to back, accuse each other, without ever acknowledging their faults. The Izum massacre, 433 graves discovered in eastern Ukraine? A manipulation, according to the Kremlin. A new nuclear power plant under the bombs? It’s Russia, assures kyiv. As a net, in the middle, Ukrainian separatists claim that Ukraine is carrying out punitive strikes on its own people, and locking up representatives of the OSCE, the Cold War organization that was supposed to guarantee peace between the West and the USSR. With the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the winds of propaganda are blowing again. Like at the start of the war.
“This is a lie”. Here are 433 graves and hundreds of sometimes mutilated bodies, swept away with a firm hand. This Monday, the Kremlin made it known that it did not recognize the Izioum massacre, which scandalizes the West, despite the presence of independent journalists on the spot. “It’s the same scenario as in Boutcha,” said Dimitri Peskov, spokesperson. In Boutcha, near kyiv, the bodies of civilians had also been found dead. For Moscow, it is either a “fake”, or the work of Ukrainian neo-Nazis. But now, the evidence is there, and it could soon bring down those responsible for these acts. The presidency of the European Union has called for the creation of an international tribunal to try war crimes committed in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom on Monday accused Russia of having bombed the site of the Pivdennonooukrainsk power plant, in the south of the country, raising fears once again of a nuclear incident. “A powerful explosion occurred just 300 meters from the reactors,” he said. “Currently, the three reactors of the plant are operating in regular mode”, assured the public operator according to which the bombardment did not cause deaths or injuries. The strike blew out about 100 windows in the power station building and caused a brief disconnection of three high-voltage lines at the power station, according to the same source.
Russia endangers the whole world. We must stop it as long as it is not too late,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram, who released a black and white surveillance video showing a large explosion. of Zaporizhia, the largest in Europe and occupied by Russian troops, had already been targeted by bombardments in recent months causing great concern in the West.All its reactors are shut down, and personnel from international bodies are on the spot.
Reminiscences of the Cold War. Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine on Monday sentenced two employees of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to 13 years in prison on charges of “high treason”, Russian agencies reported. Dmitri Chabanov and Maksim Petrov, accused of having transmitted information to foreign intelligence services, were arrested in April.
A setup ? Based in Vienna since its establishment in 1975, the OSCE was born in the heart of the Cold War to promote East-West dialogue. It has 57 member states, including NATO countries and those in Russian orbit. OSCE Secretary General Helga Schmid has strongly denounced the conviction, following what she considers to be “so-called legal proceedings”. “I call for their immediate and unconditional release,” she said in a statement, adding that a third OSCE employee was being held by the separatists.
In the Kharkiv region (north-east), Ukrainian forces say they have taken over thousands of square kilometers from Russian forces this month. But in the city of Kupiansk, split in two by the Oskil River, their enemy clings. kyiv troops are still fighting; the Russians are entrenched on the other side, where most of the fighting takes place. On Monday, a stream of civilians sought to flee the bombed city there and where water and electricity have been missing for a week, according to residents.
Military experts believe a Ukrainian reconquest of Kupyansk, which had some 58,000 pre-war inhabitants, would make it more difficult to supply Russian forces deployed further south to protect their gains in the Donbass industrial basin, a priority strategic objective for the president. Russian Vladimir Putin. Kupyansk is also a road crossing point of the Oskil River, and several of its bridges have been damaged in the fighting.
A “punitive” Ukrainian strike on Donetsk, capital of the eponymous pro-Russian separatist zone in eastern Ukraine, is said to have killed 13 civilians, the city’s pro-Moscow mayor, Alexei Kemzouline, charged on Monday. “According to preliminary data, 13 civilians were killed as a result of a punitive bombardment on Baku Commissars’ Square” in western Donetsk, Mr. Kemzulin said on Telegram, specifying that “the number of wounded ( was) still being established”. “Nine 155 mm caliber shells were fired from the village of Netailové,” he said, calling on the population to “only come out if absolutely necessary”. These statements have not been verified by any independent body. While the West fears an escalation of the conflict and the taking of civilians hostage by Russian forces, now the pro-Russians are passing the buck.