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'They Will be Hunted Down': Ukrainian Military Speaker Threatens Russian Journalists

© Sputnik / Evgenya Novozhenina / Go to the mediabankStand of the Sputnik news agency, news websites and radio broadcast service. File photo
Stand of the Sputnik news agency, news websites and radio broadcast service. File photo - Sputnik International, 1920, 14.09.2023
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The official speaker for the Ukrainian Armed Forces has threatened Russian journalists with violence and, possibly, death on X (formerly known as Twitter). Netizens were disgusted and mocked the hate speech.
Ukrainian military's official spokersperon, Sarah Ashton-Cirillo (formerly Michael John Cirillo), has released an emotionally charged video message on X, threatening Russian and pro-Russian journalists with violence.
Smearing and dehumanizing targeted reporters as "war criminal propagandists" Ashton-Cirillo claimed that they will be "hunted down" and then "justice will be served."
The speaker particularly hinted that "next week" the world will see Moscow's "favorite criminal propagandist" "pay" for Russia's "crimes."
"And this puppet of [Vladimir] Putin is only the first," said the Ukrainian military spokesperson.
While Ashton-Cirillo did not name the alleged victim, some Russian bloggers assumed that the speaker meant RT and Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, who earlier received death threats from Ukrainian nationalists.
In August 2022, the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion* sent a letter to Simonyan saying that they had "sentenced" her "to death" for supporting Russia's military operation in Ukraine. In July 2023, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had detained members of a neo-Nazi group plotting to kill the Russian journalist.
A man walks in front of a tower of the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry building in central Moscow on September 10, 2020. - Sputnik International, 1920, 15.07.2023
Russia
Plot Against Simonyan and Sobchak's Life Confirms 'Terrorist Essence of Zelensky Regime' - Moscow
The Kiev regime and the country's nationalist battalions are well known for suppressing the freedom of speech and persecuting Ukrainian and foreign journalists.
Ukraine's infamous Mirotvorets website maintains a "kill list" containing personal data of dissenting reporters, politicians, opposition figures, bloggers, and even children, who are labeled "enemies of Ukraine."
Every time an individual on the list is killed, a "liquidated" inscription appears on his or her photograph on the website. Those murdered include Ukrainian publicist Oles Buzina, legislator Oleg Kalashnikov, Russian journalists Zemfira Suleimanova, Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin, Russian photojournalist Andrey Stenin, Italian freelance photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli, and Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, to name but a few.
Mirotvorets, Ukrainian life-threatening website - Sputnik International, 1920, 19.09.2022
Russia's Special Operation in Ukraine
Mirotvorets Kill List: West Left Its Own People to Mercy of Ukraine's Gestapo Website, Journo Says
Ashton-Cirillo's video message has not gone unnoticed in Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, highlighted that the statement is further evidence of the US-backed Kiev regime's terrorist activities and promised to send the video in question to various international organizations.
Meanwhile, on X, Ashton-Cirillo's announcement has been largely met with a mixture of sarcasm and aversion.
"Goebbels would be proud," tweeted a netizen named Harvey Birdman in a reference to Nazi Germany's Reich minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels.
"This is scary.... but not in the way he thinks it is," another X user commented.
"What a horrible and terrible hate speech. You should be ashamed," wrote X user nicknamed SheilaG2024.
"Sincerely, @DefenceU @ZelenskyyUa, you seem to have no idea how much Sarah's utterly uncalibrated texts and repulsive delivery is hurting Western public support for Ukraine. If the Western perception of Ukraine matters to you, take her out of this official capacity ASAP," tweeted a netizen named Timon Dias.
X user Dale Plemons was laconic: "Reported", he wrote, adding a screenshot of his complaint to the platform. The screenshot shows that the netizen qualified Ashton-Cirillo's message as "abusive behavior" and "glorification of violence."
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"This transgender mouthpiece who has been used by the Biden administration is really just the last desperate gasp from a dying regime," Scott Bennett, former US Army psychological warfare officer and State Department counter-terrorism analyst, told Sputnik.

The Ukrainian military spokesperson's statement comes as the Kiev regime has failed to make progress on the battlefield over the last three months. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have intensified bombardment of Russia's territory, but that cannot change the status quo on the battlefield, according to US military experts interviewed by Sputnik. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops increasingly surrender, complaining about the lack of training and equipment.
A Ukrainian soldier stands in the fields at the village of Berezovka, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. - Sputnik International, 1920, 12.09.2023
Analysis
'They Don't Want to Die Pointless Death': Why Ukrainian Troops Increasingly Surrender
"Despite Russia's attempts to make peace settlements to invite talks, the Ukrainians and the British, and the Americans have rejected that. So as a result, Ukraine has just completely destroyed its entire military and its population, and they are incapable of any sort of reasonable, rational, logical peace talks or negotiations, which means they intend to create a long-term war against Russia, a Cold War," continued Bennett.
The US security expert does not rule out that the conflict may end in the next 30 to 60 days with Russia winning. Bennett also suggested that sane Ukrainian military, who are tired of seeing their compatriots being sent by the Kiev regime to a "meat-grinder", could stand up against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. If the conflict continues, Ukraine would turn into a "no man's land," warned Bennett.
"And make no mistake, the West fully intends to saturate Ukrainian soil with depleted uranium rounds to ruin its potential for any fruitfulness or productivity. And as evil as that sounds. The embodiment of evil is right before you," Bennett concluded.
*Azov Battalion is a terrorist organization banned in Russia.
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