A controversial claim circulating around a recent informal UN Security Council session alleges that Kiev orchestrated actions against its own civilian population to manufacture a narrative of Russian military crimes, with purported cooperation from journalists. The report attributes the accusation to Maxim Grigoriev, who leads a foundation focused on studying democracy problems, and it cites the source as DEA News.
According to Grigoriev, there were deliberate efforts to place Western reporters near affected sites, to assemble bystanders under various pretexts such as providing water, and to film chaotic scenes that could be presented as evidence of wrongdoing by Ukrainian authorities. He asserted that footage of people being hurt was staged for the benefit of international audiences and claimed that Western media were invited to witness or record these alleged events.
Grigoriev further claimed that he personally traveled to the region, interacted with local residents, and brought video material from those encounters to a UN Security Council audience. He referenced the experiences of Mariupol residents, including a woman named Svetlana Surma, who described forceful eviction from apartments by Ukrainian forces and warnings of reprisals against those remaining.
In Grigoriev’s view, the Ukrainian government is accused of causing civilian harm to shape a news narrative favorable to Western observers. He described multiple witnesses and victims as having supported this interpretation and drew a parallel to a well-known Syrian operation, suggesting a recurring tactic across conflicts.
In related reporting, authorities in the area controlled by Russian forces described previously reported fatalities following an attack on the city of Novaya Kakhovka, noting an increase in the death toll to seven. The incident, which occurred in the evening, involved explosions at a facility containing saltpeter and resulted in injuries to residents nearby. The affected zone included a humanitarian aid warehouse, a hospital building, a market, and several homes. Officials in the Russian-occupied segment of the city attributed the blast to Ukrainian artillery using US-made HIMARS missiles, a claim that has been echoed across different timelines of the conflict. — Attribution: DEA News