How thoughtless reposts in social networks play into the hands of Russia/RBC

The other day, Ukraine and the whole world were stunned by terrible footage from under the Kiev region liberated from the Russians. Hundreds of dead and tortured civilians were found in Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel.

The fact that the Russians call the atrocities of their army “fake” adds to the cynicism of the situation. Why this happens and how not to help the enemy in his information war – read on.

How the invaders act

Horrible footage from Bucha, where the streets are littered with the bodies of dead civilians, give the right to claim that the Russian occupiers have committed genocide on Ukrainian soil. In the occupied regions of the Kiev region, the enemy did things that simply do not fit in the head – he tortured, raped and mercilessly killed Ukrainians. Both older people and children.

Ukrainians distributed photos on social networks in order to show the whole world what inhuman actions Russia is capable of. However, in parallel with the real shots from Bucha, Irpen and Gostomel, shots and information from other cities were distributed, passing it off as atrocities in the Kiev region. Globally – it does not change the meaning. The Russians are killing us with the same cruelty both near Kiev and in Mariupol.

But it is important and necessary to distinguish between these inhuman actions of the enemy. After all, the Russian propaganda machine is only waiting for Ukrainians to mistakenly pass off footage from, say, Mariupol as footage from Bucha or Irpin. So that later the propagandists would say that Ukraine creates fakes. That is, it “gives them reason” to say that the genocide against Ukrainians, which was committed by the Russian military, is supposedly not true.

Cases-examples of how not to do it

For example, through social networks, citing journalists, disseminated information that several girls from Mariupol under the age of 10 with vaginal and anal ruptures were admitted to the Zaporozhye hospital. The source, as always in such cases, was “a husband's friend, a doctor from Zaporozhye”.

As Petr Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said, this information is not true and is a fake. reported. This fake was created to neutralize the informational influence from the crimes of the Russian army in Bucha and to discredit sources, in support of the Russian “version” about the “staging” in Bucha, he explained.

Andryushchenko urged Ukrainians to be careful with information. After all, information is also a weapon.

Another example is a photograph of a Ukrainian woman tortured and killed in Mariupol. A burnt swastika was left on the girl's body. The propagandists cynically accused allegedly “Ukrainian Nazis” of this. And when the Ukrainians accidentally began to distribute this footage, passing it off as the events in Gostomel, the Russians were in seventh heaven.

Even Russia's chief propagandist Vladimir Solovyov triumphantly declared that the Ukrainians in their publications “shamelessly lie.”

We must understand that there are no rules for Russia in either conventional or information warfare. In order not to help the enemy, we must be conscious of what information we disseminate. Trust only trusted media and official authorities.

Together we will win!

Actually – terrible memories of a resident of Bucha, who managed to escape : watch the video