This is how Russian viewers see the war in Ukraine

For Western viewers, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took place as a series of violent attacks accompanied by strategic mistakes.

But on Russian television, those very events are processed as positive eventsan interpretation supported by a quick mix of posture and lying.

Most of Russia’s news media is tightly controlled by the Kremlin, with state television acting as government spokesperson.

Critical reporting on the war was made criminal.

According to disinformation specialists, Russia’s complex and sometimes conflicting television narrative about the war is not just aimed at convincingtell viewers that his version of events is true.

Often the goal is to confuse and make them suspicious so they don’t know what to believe.

New York Times reviewed more than 50 hours of photos to expose how the war was portrayed to the Russians through the country’s news media.

14th April

Ukrainian Missiles Zinc Prized Russian Ship Russia faced a huge loss when the Moscow, its emblematic missile cruiser, sank after being attacked in mid -April.

Ukrainian authorities said the ship was hit by two Neptune anti-ship missiles.

That week, the Times reported that the United States provided intelligence work that helped Ukraine locate and attack the ship.

Russian independent news media outside the country have already reported about 40 men died and 100 more were injured.

However, in the Russian state media, news programs downplayed Ukraine’s strategic attack by a narrative they changed over time.

Initially, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the ship was damaged after a fire on board caused the explosion of several bullets.

The report said the ship was being towed ashore and the crew were there safely evacuated.

Russian media later reported that the ship had sink while there is a storm while pulling.

A segment also featured a row of unharmed Russian sailors introduced as the crew of Moskva, safe and sound.

April 2

The corpses in the streets of Bucha With the departure of Russian forces from the area around kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, graphic images spread showing the corpses of civilians lying in the streets.

In Bucha, a suburb of kyiv, some civilians were found with their hands tied or with gunshot wounds to the head.

These images have generated repeated billing requests war crimes against Russia.

But on Russian television these materials were presented as a montage, and television hosts examined the images and videos in search of elements to expose the comedy.

In one video, Russian journalists pointed out that the clothes of some dead civilians were too clean to be on the streets for several days, suggesting that civilians could not have been killed during the Russian occupation.

A Defense Ministry statement released on “Vremya” nightly news said the bodies showed no signs of decomposition and blood from the wounds did not clot.

“All of this is undeniable proof that Bucha’s photos and videos are different mounting of the kyiv regime to profit the Western mass media, ”the ministry said in a statement.

However, clear photographs held by Western media showed that the bodies had clear signs of decay.

Another news report said Bucha’s footage showed several bodies moving, cited as evidence that the bodies were fake.

One video showed a rearview mirror showing a body appearing to be moving after the car passed.

But some photos taken at the scene by Western photographers showed that bodies in that area had clear signs of decay.

Apparently, the sensation of movement is a result of distortion of glass, which also affects the buildings around the body.

Subsequently, the claim that the bodies in the streets were part of a hoax contradicts a completely different narrative promoted on television in Russia: that civilians were actually killed, but Ukrainian soldiers were kill them.

March 9

Russia’s bombed maternity hospital has reaped international outrage after bombing a maternity hospital in Mariupol, a southern port city.

pictures of women pregnant injuredTaken to the burned hospital grounds or helped down the battered hospital stairs, they made it clear to Western viewers that the war had a cost to the civilian population.

In Russia, however, that attack was described as a lie.

In an avalanche of allegations that lasted several days, Russian television broke down the scenes and raised many questions about the Western narrative, almost always using the same images seen in the West to suggest different other explanations of what happened.

In the Western media, images of the two women are often spread.

One of them, Marianna Vyshemirskaya, an influencer who survived the attack and later gave birth to a baby girl.

One, who has not yet been identified, was photographed on a stretcher and was eventually the agency Associated Press reported that he had died.

In one segment, Russian journalists said they were both women.

Vyshemirskaya later denied that she was the woman seen on the stretcher.

In another segment broadcast on Russian television, they said the victims removed from the hospital were soldiers from Ukraine’s far-right Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian national guard unit linked to the country’s neo-Nazi movement.

But photos taken by journalists in the West showed that the victims were women and some were wearing khaki clothing that somewhat resembled soldiers ’uniforms.

Vyshemirskaya later gave an interview to Denis Seleznev, a Ukrainian blogger who supports the separatist movement in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

The fragments broadcast on Russian television did not focus on the woman’s injuries, but on the Azov battalion and said that this military group. occupied the hospital before the bombing happened.

Western journalists did not report that any evidence that Azov used the building as a base was found at the scene, and a report in April released by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe called the attack on hospital a war crimes.

The Russian media and the Kremlin often emphasize neo-nazi movement of Ukraine to justify the aggression.

The President of Russia, Vladimir Putinnoted that one of its main objectives is the “denazification of Ukraine”.

Despite the fact that the Azov battalion was founded in 2014 by ultranationalist and neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine, experts say that this group has stopped being extremely extremist due to pressure from the authorities.

According to specialists who monitor the extreme right, the neo-Nazi movement is not a major force in Ukraine, and they point out that the proof of this is the election of Volodymyr Zelenskywho is a Jew, as president of Ukraine.

March 4

Attack on Zaporizhia nuclear power plant In early March, Russian forces approached the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. A fight with Ukrainian forces led to a fire in that complex, which Zelensky said could result in “the end of Europe.” The fire was extinguished, but Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism”.

Russian viewers, however, were told another story: that Ukrainian soldiers raided the facility and burned the building before fleeing.

They were told that Russian forces were defending the plant from “Ukrainian saboteurs,” according to a government statement repeated in state media.

In photos released a few weeks later, the power plant was seen functioning normally, and several drone shots showed workers arriving at the clean center and going through security checkpoints in an orderly manner.

“While the special military operation was taking place, the nuclear power plant did not stop working for a single second,” said Alexei Ivanov, a reporter for Channel 1’s “Vremya” nightly news.

“And now it’s gotten stronger.” Ivanov also noted that Russian guards “will not interfere with the operation of the plant.”

A soldier interviewed at the facility said that “the plant employees show some respect” and the workers “maintain order and discipline in their work.”

It is still often said on state television that Ukraine is doing better under Russian control, supporting Putin’s questionable argument that Russian soldiers were sent to protect to the citizens of Ukraine.

c.2022 The New York Times Company