MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) – The Ukrainian military authorities have failed to confirm their earlier claim that a Russian column, consisting of 1,200 military servicemen and 150 armored vehicles including tanks and Grad missile launchers, had entered the territory of Ukraine near Luhansk, Western mass media sources report.
"Muddled security officials in Ukraine were… forced to deny that a huge Russian military convoy had been deployed in the eastern rebel-run city of Luhansk. The strong rebuttal suggested an earlier claim about an invasion by Vladimir Putin's troops amounted to a crude propaganda move by the pro-Western Kiev government - or deep confusion in its own ranks," the Daily Mail emphasizes.
The controversial information came from Lt.-Gen. Igor Voronchenko, the head of the Ukrainian Anti Terrorist Operation (ATO) in Luhansk and was immediately "confirmed" by Dmitry Tymchuk, a Ukrainian military analyst.
"Unfortunately, we can confirm the fact that the column of Russian military equipment broke through to Luhansk to back up the local militants," wrote Tymchuk on his Facebook page on August 19. The military analyst, however, failed to explain how the column remained undetected by the Ukrainian forces while breaking through ATO's blockade line.
The Russian invasion hoax had been instantly disseminated via the mainstream Ukrainian media and had rapidly spread across the Internet.
Ihor #Voronchenko, ATO cmdr in #Luhansk reg tells @HromadskeTV #Russia's 1200 fighters,150 armored vehicles incl Grads, tanks are in Luhansk
— Myroslava Petsa (@myroslavapetsa) August 19, 2014
Igor Voronchenko #ATO Commander Luhansk region confirmed column of Russian military (1200 troops, 150 tanks & GRADS) entered Luhansk
— GorseFires Collectif (@GorseFires) August 19, 2014
#Russian reg. troops with tanks and APCs enter #Lugansk. RU outright military aggression! #Ukraine needs assistance! http://t.co/NckPgr5q8d
— Jerry (@jerrym10000) August 19, 2014
Remarkably, neither the social network users nor the Ukrainian media outlets had presented any photographic or video evidence confirming their reports.
@jukaukor @myroslavapetsa @HromadskeTV So how come no one has made a single picture of the mess like that? Got to be fake news.
— Erikki (@ErikkiV) August 19, 2014
.@myroslavapetsa @HromadskeTV How is this possible? All roads to #Luhansk blocked by #Ukraine's #ATO troops?
— Juhani Kaukoranta (@jukaukor) August 19, 2014
@2111015 @GorseFires @myroslawabrulak This is getting retweeted a lot. Is there any evidence confirming this? A big deal if true.
— Threat Watch (@ThreatWatch1) August 19, 2014
Meanwhile, Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman for Kiev's National Security and Defense Council, has recently denounced the report as "strange." It's worth mentioning that neither NATO nor its reputable Western sources have confirmed the controversial information either, the Daily Mail notes.
Some Ukrainian analysts have also qualified the information about the huge convoy of Russian vehicles as "contradictory." Citing sources close to the Aidar battalion [a Battalion of Territorial Defense detachment of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine] the Ukrainian news project BurkoNews.info admits that the reports regarding the Russian convoy "presumed to have entered Luhansk" could have been "disinformation" and “part of the information war."
Allegedly, the roots of the hoax lie in a mistranslated and misinterpreted statement made by Alexander Zakharchenko, the DPR’s Prime Minister. During a conference in Donetsk, Zakharchenko claimed that the rebels had reserves of 150 combat vehicles, including 30 tanks, adding that a contingent of 1,200 Ukrainian rebel militants had undergone military training on the territory of Russia. On August 16, the BBC admitted that some media sources had initially mistranslated Zakharchenko's words and a suggestion had appeared in the media that the vehicles and the troops "were on their way from Russia." The media source emphasized that according to the DPR Prime Minister, all of the "hardware" had been seized from the Ukrainian Army.
However, on August 19, EuroMaidan Press reported that there had been a Russian intrusion into Ukraine, citing Zakharchenko's misinterpreted statement again: "Donetsk terrorist leader Oleksandr Zakharchenko had earlier made public statements that 1,200 Russian-trained troops and a column of vehicles were entering the country to assist insurgent forces."
Both Russia and the Ukrainian self-defense forces denied the allegations, stressing that it was not the first time Ukraine had made up statements about Russian military columns entering the country. Indeed, earlier in August Kiev had reported that a Russian armored column had been successfully destroyed by Ukrainian artillery on the territory of eastern Ukraine. Although no evidence had been presented by the Ukrainian authorities, the Western media quickly spread the story, while NATO reported a Russian "incursion." However, no photos of the wreckage of the "column", satellite images or other evidence were ever released by Ukraine. Thus, unsurprisingly, NATO and reputable mass media sources hesitated to confirm the Russian "intrusion" hoax when it happened on August 19, experts underscore.
According to the Daily Mail, Kiev "is understood to have received 'advice' from Western spin doctors and PR specialists." Global Research emphasizes that the Ukrainian pro-Western elite and some American policy-makers confronted all the efforts that were made by Russia and the international community to mediate the situation, aggravating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Since the "earlier incitements," including a Russophobic campaign over the MH17 tragedy as well as speculations that Russian humanitarian aid could contain military equipment for rebels "failed in their desired effect," Kiev’s spin doctors continue to accuse Russia of non-existent "aggression." Customs Union leaders and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko are slated to meet in Minsk, but these forces are actively attempting to undermine the settlement process, experts say.
