They say that the first casualty of a war is the “truth” and this couldn’t be more accurate than what we are getting from Ukraine as facts are twisted to suit a certain narrative and are targeted at certain groups of people.
One thing the Ukraine war has shown us is that information is very important in 21st-century wars as each side tries to win the minds and souls of audiences around the world.
It has been very difficult to verify what’s going on in Ukraine except by connecting dots of what we are being told in order to make sense of it but there is no denying the very important part played by misinformation as many stories were thought to be true become fake in a matter of days.
We have been following the war in Ukraine since 2014 and that’s why we can easily separate facts from the truth by analyzing different news from different sources coming out of Ukraine.
Last week on Tuesday, Russia announced a decision reached after negotiations to pull back its troops from northern Keiv as a confidence-building measure in ongoing negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to try and find a peaceful negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine and how to prevent a future war from happening.
When Russian troops started pulling back from their positions in northern Keiv, it was reported in most western media as Russian troops retreating from their positions in Keiv after heavy fighting took place which wasn’t true.
It was an organized withdrawal by Russian forces announced by Russia after negotiation as a confidence measure build up between the Ukraine government and the Russian government before peace proceed to the next level.
Reporting that Russian forces were retreating from northern Keiv by western media instead of a pull back was meant to tell their audiences around the world but especially at home that Russia’s military has been defeated outside Keiv and its forces run away which wasn’t the case since it was publicly announced that Russian forces would withdraw from those areas inorder to give peace a chance but not retreating as a defeated force which very far from it.
After Russian troops withdrew from northern Keiv areas especially Bucha, the mayor of Bucha posted a video on social media saying that everything was ok in Bucha town and it was a historical day for liberation of Bucha but nothing like civilians being killed in the street was reported or mass graves in the area.
“31 March will go down in the history of our town as the day of liberation from Russian forces”, Bucha major Anatolii Fedoruk said in a video that appeared to have been filmed outside town Hall. Photos of Ukrainian troops in Bucha and Ivankiv towns were then shared online but nothing like dead bodies in the street was talked about.
Three days had passed when all of a sudden, the AFP journalists reported that 20 bodies in civilian clothing were killed, ” all 20 are in civilian clothing, and all have different poses in death. Some lie with sightless eyes staring at Ukraine’s overcast sky, some lie face down on the tarmac”, the report said.
“One has his hand tied behind his back with a white cloth, and his Ukrainian passport left open beside his corpse”, AFP journalists reported. They were trying to tell the world that this body was tortured before being killed but why would a fleeing force as it was reported have a prisoner in the middle of street.
Then it was reported by AFP journalists that Bucha town mayor Anatolii Fedoruk said” all these people were shot, killed in the back of their head”.
This means that they were killed while trying to flee but why would Russian forces all of sudden decide shot and kill people they have been living with for weeks at time when there was no fighting.
To solve that question of fighting, the Ukraine government reported that there was heavy fighting as Russian troops withdrew from the towns and villages around Keiv but why would Russian forces fight after announcing a withdrawal publicly, it doesn’t make any sense even for Ukraine soldiers to risk dying when Russia’s military was peacefully withdrawing from the areas.
In logical sense, it was easy for Ukraine forces to take up positions left behind by the withdraw of Russian troops with out firing any shot.
So what was the purpose of fighting if you can wait for Russia’s military to go and take those areas unharmed and without losing any resources?
Then it was reported that about 280 bodies were buried in mass graves in Bucha while bodies of the whole family still lie in a shot-up car. This was meant to show that Russia has been killing civilians and then putting them in mass graves.
It was reported on the 26th of March that 300 people had been killed in a theatre after Russia’s air strike and that about 200 people were buried in mass graves according to the UN team in Maruipal.
After the news of Russian troops’ withdrawal come out, UK foreign secretary Liz Truss released these statements” as Russian forces are forced into retreat, we are seeing increasing evidence of acts by invading forces in towns such as Irpin and Bucha”.
She added, ” their indiscriminate attacks against innocent civilians during the illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine must be investigated as war crimes”.
” We will not let Russians cover up their involvement in those atrocities through cynical disinformation and will ensure that the reality of Russian actions is brought to light”, she added. After releasing such a statement, reports started coming in of mass graves and dead bodies lying on the streets of Bucha.
But to the surprise of everybody, the UK blocked the first UN security council meeting called by Russia about the reports citing war crimes from Bucha town as provocations on Monday.
UK holds a UN security council presidency for the month of April and instead of having a UN security council meeting on Monday, the UK said that the meeting would take place on Tuesday with the presence of president Zelensky of Ukraine.
“Today Russia will again demand that the UN security council meeting convenes in connection with the criminal provocations of Ukrainian servicemen and radicals in this city”, Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on Instagram.
With people losing interest in the Ukraine war and others starting to see some hope of ending, if you were the UK or US, what would you do to make sure peace talks end, war continues and people’s attention are brought back to Ukraine.
UK and US have been saying that they will make sure Russia fights until the last Ukrainian and that they will make sure Russia is defeated in Ukraine which means they don’t have any appetite for seeing the war end soon.
Russia ending the war peacefully with Ukraine is a victory for Russia and a loss for the UK and the US who together with allies have invested in a lot of resources including sanctions, diplomatic support for Ukraine, and supply of weapons worth billions of dollars in their fight against Russia.
For both UK and US, losing a war to Russia is not an option and they are bringing war crimes to scare Russia’s military that there are consequences if they continue fighting but I don’t think this will work because like UK and US which can’t afford a win for Russia, Putin will not accept a defeat in Ukraine.
As you can see, the story doesn’t add up since some people like Liz Truss already demanded Russia be held accountable for crimes committed in Bucha town even before anything was reported from Bucha town and the mayor of Bucha town said everything was ok a day Russian forces withdrew before changing the statement three days later and why would Russian forces kill civilians when withdrawing, it doesn’t make any sense but hope you can connect the dots and come up with your own conclusion as we continue following the incident.
