DISINFO: Kyiv shelled its own soldiers using US-supplied HIMARS rockets
SUMMARY
Kyiv shelled a prison camp housing a group of Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russian Army. The attack, which killed 50, was carried out using the US-supplied missile systems.
RESPONSE
The claim is part of an ongoing pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign concerning Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine.
No actual evidence is cited to lay responsibility for the shelling on Ukraine. However, multiple analyses have ruled out the use of HIMARS systems in the attack. The US-based Institute for the Study of War has stated that although one “cannot independently assess the nature of the attack or the party responsible for it at this time,” the Kremlin’s side of the story is lacking in credibility:
Kremlin-sponsored news outlet “RIA Novosti” published videos of the detention center, which showed fire damage but not the sort of damage that a HIMARS strike would likely have caused. RIA Novosti also released footage of HIMARS missile fragments but provided no evidence that the fragments were recovered at Olenivka.
Similarly, a CNN investigation cited multiple arms experts as saying the nature of the damage sustained by the prison camp is incompatible with the use of a HIMARS system. One expert who discounted the Russian theory also noted that “the HIMARS remnants were not photographed [by Russia] in situ, which is odd. A basic element of any investigation would be gathering visual evidence of the remains of munitions where they were found.”
A set of six experts approached by The Washington Post arrived at the same conclusion. See further debunking by POLYGRAPH.info and The Insider (in Russian).