Snip:
“We only spoke Ukrainian, and if we didn’t, they forced us to. During service in the 425th Skala unit, we were thrown into a pit and beaten for speaking Russian,” an ex-Ukrainian soldier has revealed.
Strict monitoring was carried out at training grounds to ensure soldiers spoke Ukrainian, and the punishment was harsh, according to him.
“A pit was dug six by six meters, and about four meters deep. A senior officer arrived, spoke Ukrainian, and if he heard something wrong, he immediately fired into the air without even trying to figure it out,” the soldier added.
He is currently serving in the Alexander Matrosov Volunteer Unit made up of former Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel, who have formed a liberation movement and are fighting against the Zelensky regime.
The literal article is reporting it as a fact, there’s no “alleged” statements anywhere. Their “article” is insanely short with no author and a story from one single guy with no other facts or evidence to corroborate his story. That snip is the entire piece. You dont think a news outlet owned by the russian government would have an incentive to lie and dehumanize people from a country they are trying to invade? At best its journalistic malpractice spreading misinformation. At worst it’s from the government spreading propaganda.
i’m not saying it doesn’t affect my priors at all, i’m saying they would report the truth if it aligned with their interest so you can’t tell just because it’s state media.
ukraine has been de-russifying for years even before the invasion and escalation of conflict. did you know what the Donbas was before 2022?
the article isnt talking about de-russfying in general it is specifically talking about the ukrainian government putting soldier in dicthes and beating them up as if it were true without any evidence. What kind of investigative journalism is that? You should not give it the benefit of doubt especially given the context of who owns it.
ok you don’t know anything that happened between 2014 and 2022.
its no the point, that is not what i am trying to talk about all??? that article barely qualifies as an article and you are talking about other events that the “author” didnt even bother to mention.
the context you aren’t trying to talk about is pretty fucking relevant to how you evaluate claims of ethnic abuse
Not when it comes to Russia! They didn’t exist until February 2022 and if you say otherwise that’s just Russian lies!
Though I think that kennedy’s point is any state media is inherently untrustworthy, especially during wartime, which while true, I would imagine they don’t bring this up every time the western media talks about this war and assumes everything they say must be faked.
yeah if there had bee no systematic russophobia i’d be way more skeptical but this comes in the context of a decade+ of it and you can’t just go “lol state media” like that even if you’re habitually less skeptical of western sources like our friend there.
Plus, there have been accounts, even in the western press, of abuses in the Ukrainian military, so it isn’t much of a stretch to think that they would do that to Russian speaking soldiers, this isn’t an extraordinary claim, so I don’t think it requires extraordinary evidence.
There’s probably an assumption that Russian readers, unlike Americans, will have some context.
First, i am not american. Second I am talking about journalism here not side related topics. You’ve clearly made up your mind so i will not try to convince you otherwise.
American-puppets probably count under the generalisation they’re making anyway.
The side related topics are the context that you apparently just became aware of but wouldn’t need to be reiterated in Russia.
dude Im not trying to argue with you.