False report attributed to BBC claims Ukraine was behind Kramatorsk attack

Published on: 04/13/2022 – 18:31 Pro-Kremlin accounts are spreading a report they claim was published by British media BBC to prove that the attack on Kramatorsk station on April 9 was carried out by Ukraine. In reality, the BBC never published this video: it is fake content imitating the style of the British channel. A viral video, using BBC graphics, suggests Ukraine was behind the launch of two missiles at Kramatorsk railway station on April 8, in Donbass, Ukraine. The attack killed more than 50 people. Alexander Bunin, a Russian producer and journalist, who has relayed pro-Russian content since the start of the war in Ukraine, posted the video on his Twitter account on April 13, claiming that it is a “BBC report on the Ukrainian Tochka-U missile in Kramatorsk station, where dozens of civilians were killed”. Screenshot of fake BBC report posted by Alexander Bunin on Twitter on April 13 © Observers The video, which mimics the BBC’s graphic design and bears the BBC logo, suggests that Ukraine is the author of the attack in Kramatorsk. The text banners claim that the serial numbers of the Tochka-U missiles found at the scene after the attack were identical to those of missiles Ukraine allegedly used elsewhere. Rossiya 24, a Russian government television channel, aired the fake BBC report on the same day. Screenshot taken by the BBC of the fake video broadcast on Russian state channel Rossiya 24. © Observers on Facebook the same day, in French and in English. A false report by the “BBC”Several elements challenge: the language used, the spelling “Zelenskyy” of the name of the Ukrainian president which does not conform to that of the BBC which uses “Zelensky”, and the use of sequences of unblurred corpses In a tweet on April 13, the official BBC Twitter account denied being behind the video. “We are aware of a fake video with BBC News branding suggesting Ukraine was responsible for the attack. last week’s missile against Kramatorsk station. The BBC is taking action to have the video removed. We urge people not to share it and to check the content on the BBC News website.”Attack on Kramatorsk Railway Station: What We Know So FarOn April 8, two OTR-21 missiles Tochka hit the Kramatorsk station, which then accommodated people fleeing the combat zone. The Ukrainian authorities, fearing an offensive by the Russian army in the east of the country, had called on the inhabitants to leave the city. The two parties accuse each other of the attack, but the origin of the firing of the missiles does not has not been identified. The BBC said it was conducting an investigation to determine who was responsible for the shooting. According to the Hajun Project, which monitors military activities in Belarus, and the Conflict Intelligence Team, an independent organization that investigates military activities, both armies use the missiles. Tochka-U. It is therefore impossible, on the basis of the missile model, to determine who fired the shot. , that the Russian army had destroyed “armaments and other military equipment at the stations of Pokrovsk, Sloviansk and Barvinkove”, towns near Kramatorsk. But she always denied being responsible for the shooting near Kramatorsk station.