DISINFO: Ukraine admitted the destruction of its forces for the sake of new weapons
SUMMARY
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba made a shocking admission about the Russian Air Forces in order to beg the West for new weapons. Russian air bombs regularly destroy positions of the Ukrainian military, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba admitted. Ukrainian authorities regularly ask their Western partners for air defense systems and missiles for them, especially insisting on Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The claim hinges on a Financial Times article about guided bombs, which Russia is actively using in the war against Ukraine. The material reports that such Soviet-era bombs are dropped from Su-34 and Su-35 fighters directly onto targets, destroying not only Ukrainian positions, but also civilian targets in peaceful cities.
The article quotes the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, who said that Russia is actively using these bombs to destroy the positions of the Ukrainian military and the only way to defend against the shells is to shoot down the fighter carrying this bomb.
“Yet to achieve that, Ukraine needs significantly more modern air defence systems.” emphasizes the author of the FT article, not Dmytro Kuleba.
At the same time, the FT material mentions that Russia uses guided bombs against the civilian population and gives a specific example: on March 27, 2024, Russia bombed Kharkiv with just such bombs, which led to significant destruction of residential buildings and casualties and deaths among civilians, including children – a girl born in 2022, a boy born in 2023.
The author of the article also recalls that in March 2024, Russia additionally launched hundreds of cruise and ballistic missiles, kamikaze drones at Ukrainian energy facilities and civilian infrastructure.
Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure facilities under international law can be regarded as war crimes that have no statute of limitations and are subject to the jurisdiction of courts around the world.
The International Criminal Court in March 2024 issued arrest warrants for two Russian commanders: the commander of Russian long-range aviation and the commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet as part of an investigation into potential Russian war crimes in Ukraine committed between October 10, 2022 and March 9, 2023. The IСС suspects Russian commanders of committing war crimes of attacking civilian objects, causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects, as well as a crime against humanity of committing inhumane acts.
See other cases in our database: Russia only strikes Ukraine in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil; Ukraine blackmails Germany to get new weapons; Accusations about Russian military war crimes are unacceptable: a lot of fakes on this topic; The Russian military does not strike civilian infrastructure; Accusations of Russia "shelling the civilian infrastructure are hypocrisy.