Two British “voluntary workers” Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Parry, are missing in Ukraine.They had set off into the centre of the fiercest fighting in the town of Soledar which has been surrounded on three sides by advancing Russian forces. Were they mad? Or did they just believe the general western propaganda that Ukraine was winning the war and advancing (when the reality was exactly the opposite and they were heading for mortal danger.) The devastating Russian advances in this area and in Bakhmut have simply not been reported.
This is a clear example of believing your own propaganda, something of which I warned months ago on this website. The Ukraine/NATO/EU propaganda before and during this conflict has been slick and professional as befits a Ukraine Government headed by an actor whose main qualification for being president was that he played the president in a TV series! (and the Oligarch who financed the series then financed his presidential campaign!)
The litany of Goebbels-like propaganda from Kiev and the western media has been grotesque.
1. The “Ghost of Kiev” was the myth of a fearless Ukrainian fighter pilot who shot down so many Russian planes. It was later revealed as a complete lie.
2. The media have claimed that Ukraine captured so many Russian tanks that they ended up with more than they had at the beginning of the war. So why are they urgently demanding British, French and German tanks be sent?
3. Ukraine turned down Vladimir Putin’s Christmas ceasefire claiming a “Russian deception” to buy time which was not only illogical given Russian forces’ advances but hideously hypocritical as the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has just admitted that the critical Minsk Agreements on devolution for the Donbas (which could have brought peace after thousands of Russian Ukrainian deaths since 2014) were just a ruse “to buy time” for Kiev.
4. For months Ukraine shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, occupied by the Russians and yet actually claimed that the Russians were bombing themselves! Even the International Atomic Energy Authority issued an urgent call for the shelling of the Russian-occupied plant to cease BUT IT COULD NOT BRING ITSELF TO PUT THE BLAME WHERE IT OBVIOUSLY BELONGED – ON UKRAINIAN GUNS . So along with NATO, the EU, the gas market and the international banking system yet another supranational institution has been corrupted by the West. Needless to say no Ukraine occupied nuclear power station has been shelled by Russians!
5. Western daily lies about the war in Ukraine and their own involvement have been blatant. In indirect correspondence (through my MP) with me the British Defence Minister James Heappie said we were not at war with Russia. But we have trained troops and provided weaponry (including to openly Nazi troops) and British Royal marines are involved in covert ops as Lt General Robert Magowan admitted:
“Commandos supported discreet operations in a hugely sensitive environment”
6. When a Ukrainian missile landed in Poland killing two civilians the western media without evidence blamed the Russians but this was a lie and five days after the Associated Press cited an anonymous ‘senior US intelligence official’ claimed a Russian missile killed two Polish civilians, one of the two reporters behind the story was fired and the story was retracted:
In earlier versions of a story published November 15, 2022, The Associated Press reported erroneously, based on information from a senior American intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity, that Russian missiles had crossed into Poland and killed two people. Subsequent reporting showed that the missiles were Russian-made and most likely fired by Ukraine in defense against a Russian attack.
The degree to which these propaganda lies can have catastrophic results was clear when – before the retraction of the story – news media reported politicians considering invoking NATO’s Article 5 on mutual defence which could have caused an open NATO attack on Russia. Fortunately NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that “the missile had neither been launched by Russian military forces, nor were there indications that the Russian military offensive is directed against a member of the alliance”.
7. One of the more childish examples of western propaganda was the claim that prior to a G20 meeting Russian Foreign Secretary Lavrov had had to go to hospital. He had not. No apology – just on to the next batch of lies and propaganda!
8. When the American biolabs in Ukraine were exposed by Russian forces (containing deadly pathogens) the USA thought attack (however absurd) was the best form of defence and they accused Russia of preparing chemical warfare! No evidence of course.
The West’s hysterical accusations that Putin threatened to use nuclear weapons was another example of accusing the enemy of what you yourself have threatened. See the recent article: http://freenations.net/ukraine-crisis-nuclear-weapons-and-mad-rhetoric/
9. The Khakovska dam affair. Ukraine accused Russia of a threat to bomb the dam near Kherson city but any such flooding would have affected Russian held territory and the Kherson Oblast which voted to join Russia. Indeed the withdrawal from Kherson city and that part of Kherson region west of the Dniepro river showed that it was the Russians who were under threat from bombing the dam and that only Ukraine troops had the incentive to do so.
10. One western media article Incorrectly claimed Putin threatened to “fight to the last Ukrainian”. What he actually said was the West was prepared to fight to the last Ukrainian (a horrendous fact made daily obvious by massive Ukrainian losses of life as Zelensky madly insists in several areas that his troops must not make the strategic retreats which, as we have seen, Russia is prepared to make to save lives)
11. “Russia is running out of ammunition” has been the mainstream media cry ever since March 2022 and yet Russian missile attacks have increased – with devastating results for Ukrainian infrastructure and their ability to supply the front lines.
Western propaganda failing badly:
Despite – or perhaps because of – this non stop propaganda NATO/EU is not convincing its own people. Despite massive media censorship there are anti war demonstrations all over Europe.
In Germany Der Spiegel reported that 44% of Germans are partly or completely convinced that Putin is fighting the “globalist elite” and 40% believed Russia had no option but to react to NATO provocation. In East Germany 59% agreed completely or partially.
The first casualty of war is truth. Propaganda can be a great boost to the home media and audience and Ukraine’s propaganda has been very effective. It is believed by those making the decisions far from the front line – but the lies can have devastating effects on those doing the fighting. Unlike Mrs Zelensky they do not have time to shop in Paris!
