A top Ukrainian official has admitted that she lied about Russians committing mass rape in order to convince western countries to send more weapons to Ukraine.
Lyudmila Denisova had announced on national tv that Russia was committing war crimes including 'mass rape' of Ukrainian women. The announcement was picked up by western media and broadcast around the world, quickly being taken as fact without a moment's hesitation. Denisova did not provide any evidence of the alleged war-crimes, nor did any outlet ask for it. It was easily accepted as part of the 'Putin man bad' narrative so loved by western media.
None of it was true. Denisova has since admitted that she made the entire thing up, in order to get help and weapons from western governments, and she is totally unrepentant in doing it. In an interview published by a Ukrainian news outlet, Denisova said that her lies had achieved their intended goal.
“When, for example, I spoke in the Italian parliament at the Committee on International Affairs, I heard and saw such fatigue from Ukraine, you know? I talked about terrible things in order to somehow push them to make the decisions that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people need,” she said.
Denisova noted that Italy’s Five Star Movement was originally “against the provision of weapons to us, but after [her] speech, one of the party leaders… said that they will support [us], including by the provision of weapons.” Despite the fact that her claims about mass rape were entirely false they were repeatedly amplified by legacy media outlets like CNN, BBC and the Washington Post.
“The media was quick to put this woman’s BS claims out but couldn’t care less about correcting the record,” writes Chris Menahan.
This is just one of many fabrications about the conflict, including supposed video of 'brave' Ukrainian fighters shooting down a Russian helicopter that turned out to be footage from a video game; radiation leaks at besieged nuclear plants which turned out not to have occurred, the media’s complete misinformation about what happened on Snake Island, the ‘Ghost of Kiev Hoax, as well as the ‘attack’ on a Holocaust memorial that never happened, and the supposed Russian tank that drove over a civilian that turned out to be a Ukrainian vehicle not a Russian one.
Where are the 'Fact checkers’ in all this?
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