Our latest monitoring showed how skilled Russian reporters are when it comes to coming up with necessary interpretations and match available facts with ready-made propaganda clichés. On the other hand, we should admit that manipulators never miss an opportunity to benefit from obvious mistakes of Ukrainian politicians. The main TV channels seem to be closely monitoring what and how Ukrainian leaders say. The Ukrainian president attracts a special attention, and it is worth it.

In two episodes on Rossiya and Perviy TV channels, on November 14 and 23, Petro Poroshenko was quoted during his presentation of ‘Strategy 2020’ in Odessa on October 23. Poroshenko’s words were taken out of the context and applied to the situation which had nothing to do with the real one. Yet, Poroshenko’s contrasting ‘us’ and ‘them’ in his speech was not a good idea. Unwillingly, he supported the Kremlin propaganda in constructing a new ‘novorussian’ identity:

«Rossiya», «Vesti», 15.11.2014, 22:10

«We will have jobs, whereas they won’t, we will have pensions while they won’t. We will support children and pensioners and they won’t. Our children will go to school, and theirs will be sitting in basements because they can’t do anything! This is how we’ll win this war", said Poroshenko.

Poroshenko said it about Donbass people, and signed a decree on urgent measures to stabilize social and economic situation in Donetsk and Luhnask regions, which looks like a document that launches the economic blockade of Donbass.

«Perviy Kanal», «News», 23.11.2014, 21:00

«…Earlier Aleksandra had some hopes to get her allowance one day. Now her hopes have faded away, as have the hopes of the pensioners queuing to the only working cash machine left in the city. It does not even make sense to go to the territories controlled by the Ukrainian forces. It has been announced that the residents of the self proclaimed republics will never get any money. The Decree was signed by the Ukrainian president.

"8. The National Bank of Ukraine shall take measures within one month to stop working with all kinds of accounts, including card accounts, opened by all business entities as well as private persons on the territories where anti-terrorist operation in Donetsk and Luhansk regions is being conducted”, says the decree.

Thereby, paragraph 8 of the presidential decree actually deprives hundreds of thousands of people of any means to survive. No matter if you are a war veteran or a physically impaired, your future has been clearly described by the president. It appears to be part of the 2020 strategy which has recently been presented to his supporters by the president.

«We will have jobs, whereas they won’t, we will have pensions while they won’t. We will support children and pensioners and they won’t. Our children will go to school, and theirs will be sitting in basements because they can’t do anything! This is how we’ll win this war", said Poroshenko.

Now, after the decree has been issued it is clear how Poroshenko is planning to win the war, even though at the same time he goes on speaking of the country’s unity».

Starting from the 15^th of November, there has not been any day which would not have an episode on the daunting humanitarian situation at Donbass linked to the recent presidential decree.

The term of the ‘economic blockade’ was coined by the Russian president Vladimir Putin (LifeNews, 16.11.2014). Interestingly, the Russian president somehow decided to re-interpret the history of the first Chechen war, by comparing the Donbass situation and that in Chechnya in the early 1990s. It is even more remarkable that this message was not actively spread by the Russian TV. Most probably, it was decided to omit the reminder of the hard and unpopular war for the audience not to draw any parallels between the participation of the Russian soldiers in the conflict in Chechnya and Donbass.

Instead, the episodes focus on the bombardments by the Ukrainian army that make life of people even harder, from time to time, the reporters tell about the humanitarian aid sent from Russia. Yet, not a single episode showed how the aid was actually distributed. Instead, they show the interviews of the Donbass gunmen. They either promise to effect all the social payments themselves, or scare the audience by famine and genocide by Kyiv authorities.

The two above messages are clearly controversial. Yet, against the background of bombardments and victims, this information is no longer critically perceived. Initially, DNR and LNR leaders promised to cope with the social allowances themselves, whereas now the messages sound quite different and the new terms of payments are announced:

NTV, «News», 16.11.2014

«The seventh humanitarian aid from Russia has arrived in Donbass. Construction materials and energy equipment were delivered to help in the reconstruction of buildings. Разгрузка The unloading of the trucks continued to the sounds of bombardments conducted by the Ukrainian army. In the neighbouring Luhansk republic a bomb hit a maternity hospital.

Eighty trucks with a special marking left Rostov region, at the border the trucks were checked by Ukrainian customs, and got split into two parts, 25 cars went to Luhansk, while 55 cars went to DNR. Both groups reached destination without accidents.

This is the seventh humanitarian load from Russia. Donetsk region obtained special electricity equipment for the people to survive in winter. DNR is now ready to renew the supply of electricity in any town or village. DNR leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko thanked the employees of the Russian Emergency Ministry for their help.

Aleksandr Zakharchenko: These materials are very important for us. They are indispensable to launch ur economy. The faster we can restore production, the faster our people will return to a normal life.

The goods were being unloaded against the sounds of bombardment, however, it scared no one.

Aleksandr Zakharchenkо: these are greetings to your humanitarian column».

«Rossiya», «Vesti», 16.11.2014

«DNR leader Aleksandr Zakharchenko believes that the decree of the Ukrainian president is the first step on the road of Kyiv to recognize DNR and LNR. According to Zakharchenko, the blockade has lasted for two months. Social allowances and pensions are ‘miserable and pinprick’. Yet, the head of the republic is of the opinion that the economic blockade is ‘nothing serious’ for Donbass».

NTV, «News», 16.11.2014

«DNR  started to pay out money, albeit small, to those who need it most: single mothers, large families, orphans. NTV reporter Mikhail Antropov knows more about how social allowances are given out…

The republic’s authorities need to settle social issues in a situation which keeps worsening. The coming winter is likely to make the situation catastrophic. Paying out allowances is made more complicated because the lists of the people who need them are in Ukraine. Nevertheless, next week the money will be given to pensioners and physically impaired, the authorities say.

Dennis Pushilin, vice speaker, DNR Parliament: “we must minimize the timings, otherwise people will start dying of hunger, let’s face it”.

«Rossiya», «Vesti», 30.11.2014

«DNR authorities promise in December the young republic will pay out pensions.

"Payments are to start from December 1. Ukraine denied us the access to the Ukrainian pension fund and all the registers. This all happened before Poroshenko signed his decree. What we need to do now is understand how many pensioners we have and what their pensions were", said Andrey Purgin, head of DNR people’s council”.

Another obvious controversy is statements about ‘Kyiv authorities’ having stopped all the payments as far back as in summer, while the ‘blockade’ started with the presidential decree. This means that during the fierce battles till the so called ceasefire, Kyiv was transferring money on a regular basis, it could be obtained at post offices and withdrawn from ATMs (like this in the original text). However, this is either not mentioned or is made a casual remark of.

At times there appear some episodes seemingly aimed at introducing the audience to some facts. LifeNews, for example, never misses a chance to cover ‘the crimes of Ukrainian siloviks’ or ‘punitive squads of the National Guard’. Yet, on 29 November, the channel did not just tell about the Ukrainian military who had ruined water supply in Donetsk but also mentioned that the ‘military’ permitted to fix the pipeline. It may seem as a piece of objective information but in fact the actions of Ukrainian soldiers аre represented as a proof of their blame for bombing civilians.

LifeNews, 19.11.2014

«Donetsk has no water and heating

Ukrainian military damaged city pipelines in the vicinity of the airport.

According to LifeNews, once the pipeline was damaged, first hot and then cold water was no longer supplied. DNR community services conducted short talks with the Ukrainian side about ceasefire in the damage area, which the Ukrainian military did.

Donetsk boiler stations also were out of operation. Repair brigades could start fixing the damage about 6 p.m., the estimated time of the supply renewal is after midnight».

It should be mentioned that hardly any episode does not involve mothers and children speaking. One of the propaganda’s main points is to show the humanity of DNR fighters and ‘the routine of evil’ represented by ‘Kyiv siloviks’. The basic instincts of the people who once belonged to one country are being manipulated.

NTV, «News», 27.11.2014 

«DNR police brought food and sweets to children’s rehabilitation centre.

In the town of Khartsyzsk, territory of DNR, police officers came to a centre of social and psychological rehabilitation for children. Its patients got sweets and a set of products gathered by the officers. The institution that hosts both orphans and children of DNR fighters is acutely lacking the items of immediate need, food and warm clothes”.

NTV, «News», 24.11.2014

«LNR fighters and residents rescue the house of physically impaired children.

Luhansk region is trying to rescue an institution that helps dozens of children to lead a normal life. The house of the physically impaired, an only one in the region, was abandoned by Kyiv authorities back in spring, when they made the last money transfer.

Institutions like that should be treated with care even in times of peace. In wartime, the institution was rescued thanks to the effort of its employees and LNR fighters. The commander of humanitarian battalion of ‘Prizrak’ brigade, Kirill Androsov, brought flour and apples and is now thinking about solving the water supply problem…

Some pupils were taken by their parents to the territories in control of the National Guard. But now, despite all hardships, parents want to bring their children back, says NTV reporter Vadim Fefilov».

Moscow propaganda keeps reminding the residents of Ukrainian eastern regions that in Kyiv there are supporters of their interests. At least two episodes on blockade (November, 23 and 26) of the ‘Perviy Kanal’ advertised the initiatives of ‘Opposition Block’ to abolish Poroshenko’s decree.

There also are politicians who Russian TV launches a real information war against. For instance, tricking of Ihor Kolomoyskiy by a person who introduced himself as Pavel Gubarev, a people’ governor of Donbass, was shown in at least 8 episodes from 12 to 30 November (three episodes on ‘Rossiya’, two on ‘Zvezda’, one on Perviy, LifeNews, and NTV). Kolomoyskiy’s most resonant quotes (on Andrey Sadoviy’s, Mayor of Lviv, homosexuality, «attack on Kyiv» together with separatists; and shot down Malaysian Boeing) are retold by journalists without showing Kolomoyskiy actually uttering them.

Another episode on ‘Perviy’ called Kolomoyskiy the main supplier of tyres to Maidan. Oksana Shkoda’s performing talent is very impressive when she pretends to be another person, Nadezhda Shkoda, a Kyiv journalist. This video proves this is one and the same person.

«Perviy Kanal», «News», 21.11.2014 (broadcast 18:00, 21:00)

«…At Maidan in Kyiv people remember how it all started, how peaceful protests grew into armed clashes, how barricades of tyres grew in Khreschatyk.

Journalist Nadezhda Shkoda says that according to the press, thousands of tyres were brought to Kreschatyk by city residents.

"The whole supply of tyres was sponsored by Kolomoyskiy, payments went through the accounting office of the "1+1 TV Channel. Tons of new tyres were brought in like that. The climax of this performance – as planned by the USA – was to set up coup d’etat in Ukraine as a result of Maidan", the journalist is certain.

Local mass media do not talk about it, of course».

It is remarkable that both the advertisement of the Opposition Block and the attacks on Kolomoyskiy are accompanied by similar actions of the Ukrainian channels which belong to Akhmetov and Lyovochkin, main sponsors of the oppositionists. It may be a mere coincidence, otherwise it would look like an unveiled undermining in the interests of Russia.

It must be admitted that Ukrainian journalists sometimes provide grounds for the Russian mass media to blame Ukraine for propaganda and forgery. On November, 29 LifeNews made an episode about «some journalists who used a photo of the Russian Aleksey Marenko in their article, who was playing strike ball. Aleksey was called a member of special military troops… A Russian fire fighter became an antihero on Ukrainian news portal ‘Informator’». Moscow journalists decided to master the subject of counterpropaganda to undermine trust in any alternative point of view or information on events in Ukraine.

Lifenews.ru, 29.11.2014

«Ukrainian Mass Media represented a Russian fire fighter as a member of special military troops who fought in DNR.

…The article entitled "Donetsk airport is stormed by Russian special troops" contained photos of alleged Russian special troops soldiers. Ukrainian correspondents in fact used photos from the personal archive of a Moscow fire fighter.

“I was shocked to see those photos. I have nothing to do with special troops, all the photos were taken at a strikeball competition, which I’m a fan of,” said Aleksey. “In strikeball we buy ourselves a uniform, equipment, toy guns. It’s my hobby.”

This case turned out to be not the first one when strikeballer photographs were represented by Ukrainian information sites as images of  military people.

Aleksey was told by his friends that they had already noticed several times photos of their acquaintances in Ukrainian mass media involved into misinformational confusion.

— Community of strikeballers is very big, if some information leaks, people notice it, — Aleksey points out. — All strikeballers know each other, come together at competitions, bring up the subject in their conversations.

Clever Ukrainian journalists cut off the part of Aleksey’s photo which features glasses, a necessary strikeballing equipment. This would have demonstrated that the rest of the ammunition is not a real military uniform but just part of regular clothes to play the popular extreme hobby.

Aleksey has been a fire fighter for 8 years now. His second hobby is making footages of fire extinction by a portable camera installed on his helmet. Aleksey downloads his videos on his YouTube account.

Aleksey has got his own opinion on the Ukrainian conflict.

— I am a fairly patriotic person, am aware of my roots, that’s why I feel really disappointed by the conflict of the Slavic brothers. Mass media spread panic, deepen the whole conflict even further, — says Aleksey. — My friend journalist told me your Russian colleague had been assaulted in Ukraine. I can’t understand it, how can you claim a person’s health or even life if you did not give it to the person. I once saw a video of a crowd of Ukrainians beating up a driver of a firefighting vehicle next to his car. They were kicking him and shouted he’d better get out of Ukraine to ‘his Russia’. Why? He is a fire fighter who arrived to ensure their safety.

Aleksey talks with a smile of his reaction to the article.

— It’s just ridiculous. Obviously, the journalists pursue their own interests, but they should support their stories with real facts not fake photos. When they collect photos of people that look like special troops from Russian sites it’s all stupid and merely ridiculous.

The fire fighter believes in Ukraine provocations like that are done by the people who have just got nothing to do.

— Most probably, these people lack normal jobs, they are bored, they have nothing to do, therefore they go over the top, —summarises Aleksey».

The monitoring is carried out by “Тelekrytyka” NGO supported by the USAID provided the ‘Internews Network’.