"Information alibi". Russia claims to have deployed AFU troops in Kramatorsk maternity hospital

Russian propaganda is spreading fake news about Ukraine's alleged preparation of a provocation in the Kramatorsk maternity hospital. Representatives of the aggressor state can thus prepare an "information alibi", warns Center for Countering Disinformation.

Russia's main state propaganda news agency TASS, referring to the so-called adviser to the leader of the DPR terrorist organization Igor Kimakovsky, wrote that the maternity hospital allegedly housed Ukrainian Armed Forces and a "foreign contingent" while patients and medical staff remain there.

At the same time, the Russians cynically write that Ukraine is allegedly preparing a provocation "by analogy with the Mariupol maternity hospital," which the aggressor state deliberately bombed on March 9, 2022.

"Such statements by the Russians are another lie. Such information injections may indicate Russia's intentions to commit further war crimes on the territory of Ukraine, as well as to find excuses for them in advance," the Center emphasized .

The tactic of "information alibi" is a long-established tool of Russian propaganda, analysts say.

• Justifying the air strike on the maternity hospital in Mariupol at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the occupiers said that "the military were hiding there".
• The "military" were pregnant women, children and doctors. As a result of the air strike, 17 people were injured , and three died. One of the women in labor who was hit by the bombing died with her unborn child.