In the early afternoon of 6 September 2023, the Ukrainian army carried out a strike on Konstantinovka (a town in the DPR currently under its control), killing 16 civilians and injuring 32 others. The strike, which took place in the middle of a visit to Kiev by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, was naturally attributed to Russia. Except that the video, published by Volodymyr Zelensky himself, showing the bombardment clearly indicates that the missile that hit the Konstantinovka market came from an area under the control of the Ukrainian army!
Unfortunately, it has become customary for Ukraine to organise provocations during visits by its Western bosses. Usually this is limited to setting off air raid sirens when there are no strikes by the Russian armed forces. But this time, Kiev has gone much further in the horror department to try to attract the sympathy of its financial backers.
It’s early afternoon on 6 September 2023, and people are strolling through the market in Konstantinovka, a town in the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) that has been under the control of the Ukrainian army since 2014. All is quiet.
All of a sudden, the roar of a missile can be heard in the sky, just before it explodes in the middle of the market. At a peak time like this, such an explosion causes a bloodbath: 16 civilians are killed and 32 injured. It was sheer carnage (see the video of the aftermath of this strike, which you should only watch if you are an adult with a strong heart). Unsurprisingly, Ukraine immediately blamed Russia for the strike. Except that the inconsistencies quickly become apparent.
The first thing that catches the eye, or rather the ear, when you listen to the video posted on Volodymyr Zelensky’s official Telegram channel, is the very short delay between the sound of the missile firing and its explosion in the middle of the Konstantinovka market. This means that the missile was fired in the immediate vicinity. But the town is more than 20km from the front line, and the Russian army would never risk its air force in enemy territory within range of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defences. This alone indicated that the shot had been fired from an area under Ukrainian control, and that it was therefore the Ukrainian army that had hit Konstantinovka.
But several Telegram channels decided to dig into every last detail, and discovered several other pieces of evidence. The “Military Observer” channel analysed the video frame by frame, and realised that Volodymyr Zelensky’s team had left compromising evidence in the video he had posted on his Telegram channel, in an attempt to create a buzz too quickly.
At 3 seconds and 704 milliseconds, we see the reflection of the missile on the roof of a blue-grey car parked in the Rue du Marché. After geolocating the street, the camera (shown in red on the street map) and the car, we can clearly see that the missile arrived from the north-west. What’s more, on the left-hand side of the street we can clearly see two people turning their heads towards the sound of the missile (which is coming from behind where the camera is), and that direction is also north-west! But there are no Russian forces north-west of Konstantinovka, only Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk, two other towns controlled by the Ukrainian army!
What’s more, at 3 seconds and 837 milliseconds we can clearly see that the explosion did not take place on the ground, but in the air, above the street. Typical behaviour for missiles fired from aircraft or anti-aircraft defence systems!
As the “Military Observer” channel points out, the image of the explosion in the Konstantinovka market (2nd photo) bears a striking resemblance to that of the detonation of an American AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile (1st photo taken from an old American training video).
The evidence is so convincing that even Julian Röpcke, a pro-Kiev, Russophobic Western propagandist, has come to the conclusion that the strike on Konstantinovka came from the north-west (i.e. from the Ukrainian army and not the Russian army, although he does not dare go as far as that conclusion, which nonetheless earns him copious insults from pro-Ukraine supporters).
Unfortunately, this is not the first time that Ukraine has bombed its own territory and blamed Russia. Between the bombing of Marioupol in 2015, the bombing of the Kramatorsk railway station on 8 April 2022, not to mention the many failures of the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence system whose missiles frequently end up in apartment blocks, and now the Konstantinovka market, the Ukrainian army is without doubt a danger to civilians, including those on the territory it controls! But I’m under no illusions: even with the evidence under their noses, Western propagandists will continue to accuse Russia of the Ukrainian army’s war crimes.
Christelle Néant
Translation: Яннис В.Зброек
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