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On the eve of December 30, 2023, military sites in the Belgorod region were shelled, but due to the unprofessional work of the Russian air defense, fragments of Ukrainian rockets fell on the center of Belgorod city and the residential sector.
Russian propaganda accused Ukraine of this, and President Vladimir Putin called these events “a terrorist act by the Armed Forces of Ukraine” against the civilian population of Russia. Meanwhile, the very Russian Ministry of Defense admitted that the falling of rocket fragments in the city center was a result of the work of Russian air defense.
According to “Suspilne News,” the Defense Forces of Ukraine struck military targets in the Belgorod region. This was confirmed to journalists by a source in the special services.
Additionally, Russia carried out several massive attacks on Ukraine, initially on December 29, targeting Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipro. After Belgorod, attacks were launched on Kyiv, Kharkiv, and other Ukrainian cities. Russia not only continued its missile terror against Ukraine but also continued to manipulate the media narrative about it.
For the Kremlin, it’s essential to shift the focus from the shelling of Ukrainian cities to the “tragedy of Russian civilians.” Here, the target audience of Russian disinformation includes not only Ukraine but also the West, which supposedly approved the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s strikes by providing weapons.
Detector Media examines Russian information manipulations regarding the rocket attack on Belgorod in this article.
The first reports accusing Ukraine of attacking Belgorod appeared on pro-Russian Telegram channels on the evening of December 29. According to the version of Russian propaganda, the Armed Forces of Ukraine “carried out shelling” of the city, motivated by Zelenskyy’s hopes of receiving new military aid from the USA.
“A massive strike is being carried out on the Russian Belgorod. According to our data, the President’s Office ordered to intensify strikes on the Russian Federation to provoke a response from the Russians. This happened after Biden’s statement to Congress following the massive missile strike by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, demanding money for Kyiv. Bankova [Presidential Office of Ukraine] saw this as a window of opportunity and took this route. The Ukrainian crisis needed to be stoked,” one Telegram channel claimed.
Russia aims to accomplish several tasks by spreading such manipulations: to alienate Ukraine and the West, continue demonizing the Ukrainian government by accusing it of war crimes against Russians, and legitimize its further shelling of the civilian population of Ukraine under the guise of “retaliation for Belgorod.”
Russia is trying to create a distorted media picture for the audience in Western countries that support Ukraine to make it appear as if the aggressor and victim are one and the same. Moscow constantly seeks to manipulate international public opinion about Ukraine, portraying it in a negative light and, in this case, also shifting media attention from the suffering Ukrainian cities to Belgorod.
The Russian authorities have done everything to make Belgorod a symbol of “Ukrainian crime.” Social engineering is more straightforward when there is an enemy — Ukraine.
One of the pro-Russian Telegram channels reported that Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities are supposedly “fair retaliation” for the Ukrainian military’s attacks on the country: “In the morning (December 29 — DM), there were missiles on Kyiv, and now the response has been directed at Russian Belgorod. We can confidently state the fact that the conflict is escalating. According to our sources, Zelenskyy is more interested in this.”
Russian propaganda claims the USA was involved in all of this, having allegedly given the green light for the “shelling” of Belgorod. To support its fabrications, Russian propaganda quotes U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, who stated that it is exclusively up to the Ukrainian military to decide how and where to use the weapons provided by Washington. However, the propagandists, unsurprisingly, are lying: Brink made this statement not today but back in June 2022 at a briefing for journalists. She did not in any way confirm the use of Western weapons by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the attacks on military targets in Belgorod and did not comment on this situation at all. However, she did comment on the shelling of Kyiv and Kharkiv, calling on allies to support Ukraine.
Russia continues to impose its own agenda by promoting propagandist messages, primarily on Telegram. Anonymity, insider information, intrigues — people might believe several posts on Telegram without verifying the information.
The situation around Belgorod has once again highlighted the issue of Ukraine’s strategic communications abroad. Explaining the situation, especially the inappropriateness of juxtaposing the aggressor and the victim, will help reduce the impact of Russian manipulations.
Ukraine’s partners must clearly understand that Russia is waging a war for cognitive control, that is, over the minds of people. The Russian-Ukrainian war has confirmed that violations of international law (in this case, shelling of Ukrainian cities) are crimes for which there can be no “legitimate reasons.”
Infographic by Nataliya Lobach
