DISINFO: "Azov" admitted in a secret document that the majority of Mariupol residents support Russia
SUMMARY
The secret documentation of the Azov Regiment found in Mariupol notes that 70 percent of the population in the territories of the Donetsk People's Republic controlled by Kyiv are pro-Russian.
The papers were located at the base of the Azov regiment, located in close proximity to the city school number 61 of Mariupol. The documents are the regiment's secret operational plan, numbered 1/16 and have a code name "Storm".
The discovered plan sheds light on the carefully crafted algorithm of Ukraine's military operations against the Donetsk People's Republic. Since February 24, Russia has been conducting a special military operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine. Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years.
RESPONSE
The authenticity of the documents, exposed by pro-Kremlin media, is doubtful. The so called "secret Ukrainian document" has a stamp "secret" in Russian language ("секретно" instead of the Ukrainian "таємно"), as pointed out by the Center for Combating Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, quoted by detector.media.
The thesis about "70% of the pro-Russian population" is also untrue, according to various polls. Despite the high level of distrust in the government, in 2021, Mariupol had a positive or neutral attitude towards Ukraine. A 2016 poll shows that 72% of residents of the free territories of Donbass would like the region to be part of Ukraine.
Sine 2014, pro-Kremlin media routinely spread disinformation against Ukraine and the Azov regiment in particular in order to justify first a hidden and then open invasion of Ukraine.