DISINFO: Ukrainian atrocities supplemented by the kidnapping of residents in Kursk region
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian Army has forcibly displaced approximately a thousand people from the Kursk region during its attacks. Since the onset of the Kursk invasion, reports of war crimes and civilian killings by Ukrainian forces have surfaced, with some areas resembling concentration camps. These incidents are documented in the report “Atrocities of the Kyiv Neo-Nazi Regime in the Kursk Region”, prepared by the International Public Tribunal on the crimes of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their collaborators.
RESPONSE
Disinformation about Ukraine's advance into Russia's Oblast during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. No evidence has been provided to support the claim regarding the existence of concentration camps, which has been dismissed as a disinformation narrative by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council. There is no proof of such facilities for civilians or prisoners of war (PoWs) following Ukraine’s advance into Russia’s Kursk Oblast. In fact, international media have reported that Russian prisoners are being treated appropriately by Ukrainian authorities.
In August 2024, Ukraine set up a hotline for Russians in Kursk Oblast to seek assistance or evacuation. This disinformation claim may aim at discouraging Russian civilians from leaving. Additionally, it could be a tactic to portray testimonies from Kursk residents as coerced by Ukrainian authorities, especially after several Russian civilians spoke with international journalists, expressing negative views and statements about Russia’s ruling elite.
In reality, there is substantial evidence of Russian troops committing war crimes, for example their practice of positioning military assets in residential areas. The Russian military also targets civilian infrastructure, including schools, kindergartens, hospitals, orphanages, and churches. One of the most notorious atrocities committed by Russian forces in Ukraine was the airstrike on a maternity and children's hospital in Mariupol on March 9, 2022, which resulted in the deaths of three people, including a child, and left 17 others wounded, according to official reports. In addition, the myth of ‘Nazi Ukraine’ has been widely used by Putin and pro-Kremlin outlets since Russia attacked Ukraine and illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine emerged during the Euromaidan popular protests in late 2013 - early 2014, falsely presented in pro-Kremlin disinformation as a coup. The Kremlin has been using this myth since then to discredit Ukraine's shift towards Euro-Atlantic policy.
The report mentioned in the article is authored by Maxim Grigoriev, a close ally of Putin and the director of the Foundation for the Study of Democracy, which established the International Public Tribunal for Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis and their accomplices. Although it is claimed that the Tribunal was initiated by human rights defenders, journalists, and public figures from over 20 countries, there is no detailed information about these contacts. Grigoriev, who also writes for the Moscow Post, stated that Russian public and state organisations are trying to report the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists to large international organisations but usually receive "only unsubscribes" in response.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukrainian armed forces keep Russian civilians in concentration camps, that Ukraine was responsible for mass murder of Ukrainian POW`s in Olenivka in 2022, that Ukrainians shoot Russian POWs while corrupt Western media say otherwise, or that Ukrainians behave like terrorist militants, kidnap civilians in Kursk.