Kiev claimed that AFP is spreading “Russian propaganda” by referring to Lugansk fighters as “Ukrainian separatists”
Ukrainian Overseas Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko on Sunday accused France’s Agence France-Presse information company of falling for “Russian propaganda” by calling forces of the Lugansk Folks’s Republic “Ukrainian separatists” quite than “Russia’s invading military.” Lugansk and Russian forces introduced that they retook town of Lisichansk on Sunday.
Russian Protection Minister Sergey Shoigu introduced on Sunday that Russian and Lugansk Folks’s Republic (LPR) troops had efficiently drove Ukrainian forces out of town of Lisichansk, which had remained beneath Ukrainian management because the LPR declared independence in 2014 following a pro-Western coup in Kiev.
Hours beforehand, AFP reported that “Ukraine separatists say they’ve encircled Lisichansk,” referring to the troops of the LPR, whose independence Russia acknowledged days earlier than launching its army operation in Ukraine.
Nikolenko took challenge with AFP’s description of the LPR’s forces. “AFP turned a sufferer of Russian propaganda,” he wrote on Twitter. “It egregiously calls Russia’s invading military ‘Ukraine separatists’, presenting Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine as an inner battle – Kremlin is cheering.”
#BREAKING @AFP turned a sufferer of Russian propaganda. It egregiously calls Russia’s invading military “Ukraine separatists”, presenting Russia’s warfare in opposition to Ukraine as an inner battle – Kremlin is cheering. What subsequent – “Ukraine separatists” hearth cruise missiles from the Caspian? https://t.co/5kk0fO6LVn
— Oleg Nikolenko (@OlegNikolenko_) July three, 2022
Regardless of Nikolenko’s indignation, LPR troops have been in on-off battle with Ukrainian forces since 2014, eight years earlier than Russia acknowledged the republic’s independence and despatched its troops into Ukraine.
Moscow said that one of many causes for its offensive on Ukraine was Kiev’s failure to abide by the Minsk agreements, which have been designed to provide Donetsk and Lugansk particular standing inside the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, have been first signed in 2014, and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s important objective was to make use of the ceasefire to purchase time and “create highly effective armed forces.”
In response to AFP, Ukrainian officers denied on Saturday that Lisichansk had been encircled, and insisted that the Ukrainian military was nonetheless in command of town. By Sunday afternoon, nevertheless, the Ukrainian basic employees admitted that “after heavy preventing for Lisichansk, the defence forces of Ukraine have been pressured to withdraw from their occupied positions and features.”
Nikolenko has griped with Western media retailers earlier than. Again in Could he demanded that Reuters name the “Professional-Moscow Kherson area” of Ukraine the “Russian-occupied Kherson area,” and insisted that grain exports from town needs to be known as “stolen grain shipments,” regardless of Ukrainian and Russian officers disputing the standing of stated grain.