You can’t fight an ongoing war without vast sums of money for the necessary weapons. What better way to open hearts and pockets than stories of Ukrainian women, men and children sexually preyed on by Russian troops?
Lyudmila Denisova, the former Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, was removed from her position following a vote of no confidence in the Ukrainian parliament which passed by a margin of 234 to nine.
Parliament member Pavlo Frolov specifically accused Denisova of pushing misinformation that “only harmed Ukraine” in relation to “the numerous details of ‘unnatural sexual offenses” and child sexual abuses in the occupied territories, which were unsupported by evidence.
Legacy media perpetuated the lie.
Despite the fact that her claims about mass rape were false, they were repeatedly amplified by legacy media outlets like CNN and the Washington Post.
The sexual abuse story is not a one-off fabrication in this war.
Indeed, there have been innumerable outright hoaxes and falsehoods throughout the war where so-called ‘fact checkers’ have been noticeable by their absence.
These include radiation leaks at besieged nuclear plants which turned out not to have occurred, the media’s complete misinformation about what happened on Snake Island, the ‘Ghost of Kiev’ hoax, as well as the ‘attack’ on a Holocaust memorial that never happened.
Naturally, Denisova’s lies had the desired effect.
In an interview published by a Ukrainian news outlet, Denisova admitted that her falsehoods had achieved their intended goal.
“When, for example, I spoke in the Italian parliament at the Committee on International Affairs. I heard and saw such fatigue from Ukraine, you know? I talked about terrible things in order to somehow push them to make the decisions that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people need,” she said.
www.globalresearch.ca
Joe Public watching the six o’clock news is well schooled to believe Russia is bad and Ukraine is good.
NZ media carries abuse stories, including the sexual abuse of Ukrainian women, quoting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s claim of a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities”.
CNN admitted abuse allegations may not be true, and referred to UN representative Sima Bahous’ call for a “gender sensitive” humanitarian response that is backed up with stories containing a number of “red flags” and that allegations of rape and sexual violence “must be independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability”.
With trustworthy media thin on the ground and top officials lying because ‘the ends justify the means’, it makes it hard to know who to believe.