As soon as the RF leadership came to understand that it would not achieve any significant success in the war against Ukraine in the near future, it began to introduce new/old tactics -to conduct local operations under a “false flag”. Thus, Moscow is trying to discredit Ukraine, justify its failures on the military front and increase domestic political support in Russia.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said: “Everything is being done to avoid civilian casualties. This slows down the pace of the offensive, but we are doing it consciously.”
At the same time, Russian propaganda media once again accused Kyiv of shelling infrastructure in Russian- occupied territories. As if the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit the Galaktika shopping center in Donetsk. And the founder of the collaborative criminal group «Vostok» O. Khodakovsky echoed Russian propagandists — “Ukrainian troops deliberately, not by mistake, strike densely populated areas.”
According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), on August 23, the Russian Federation staged a missile attack on the “administration” of the leader of the “DPR” Denis Pushilin to justify its strikes on administrative buildings on Ukraine’s Independence Day on August 24.
“The Russian media has presented the attack as a direct strike from Ukraine on a government building in the DPR, potentially with the aim of creating informational occasions for corresponding strikes on Ukrainian government buildings on its Independence Day,” analysts noted.
It is interesting that Russian propagandists immediately appeared on the site of the “strike”, and the leader of the militants was not injured. Even local residents confirmed that there were craters from mortar mines. Mortar mines could not physically fly to the city center from the front line of Ukraine.
For more than a month, Russia has been shelling under a “false flag” the territory of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the occupied Enerhodar, where it deploys its troops. More than a month ago, Russia carried out a cynical terrorist act with a deadly fire in the colony of the village Olenivka, Donetsk region, where Ukrainian prisoners were placed. The purpose of this crime is to conceal war crimes, discredit the Armed Forces of Ukraine, disrupt the supply of Western weapons and increase social tension in society.
A few days ago, when there had not yet been talks at the international level that Russia should be recognized as a sponsor of terrorism, a draft law on recognizing Ukraine as a terrorist state was submitted to the RF State Duma. The reason for this draft law was the liquidation of Daria Dugina by the Russian special services, of which the Kremlin, of course, accused Ukraine and Western countries.
Acting under a «false flag», the Russian Federation encourages Western countries not only to consider, but to declare the Russian Federation a sponsor of terrorism, based on all the many crimes that Russian special services have been committing for years around the world: the attempted murders of Bulgarian businessman Emilian Gebrev and ex-intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, the murder of Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a Georgian military officer of Chechen origin, in Berlin, explosions of ammunition depots in the Czech Republic, an attempted coup in Montenegro, the crash of the Boeing 777 flight MH17, and much more.
In 2022, Russia massively destroys Ukrainian cities with civilians, carries out food and energy blackmail, and also threatens the whole world with a nuclear catastrophe. It’s time for the civilized world to recognize the Russian Federation as a sponsor of terrorism!