Russia accuses Western media of Ukraine coverage manipulation
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy envoy to the United Nations, drew special attention to the coverage of the evacuation of the civilian population from Mariupol in Western media.
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Russia's Deputy Envoy to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy
Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's Deputy Envoy to the United Nations, accused Western media outlets, on Friday, of censoring and manipulating information about the situation in Ukraine.
Polyanskiy drew special attention to the coverage of the evacuation of the civilian population from Mariupol in Western media.
During a UN Security Council Arria-Formula meeting, he said: “It’s puzzling because they have the same materials as their Russian colleagues, same settings, same witnesses but what is extremely disappointing is that Western journalists in most cases clearly engage in censorship concealing awkward information from the Western public. That’s the way the new iron curtain is being created.”
Furthermore, Polyanskiy, for example, described interviews with evacuees from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol on May 2.
“One of them, Natalia Usmanova was very vocal and emotional, that’s why she appeared in many footages,” he said.
“For example, she spoke with Reuters and this agency published a short report with a video reel on its website… what’s the impression that you get from this coverage - Natalia Usmanova is terrified, frightened by Russian strikes, she must be hating Russia for what it did to Ukraine. Thank God, she is safe and can go to Ukraine.”
Polyanskiy detailed that Reuters heavily censored what Usmanova actually said before playing the full version of the interview, which was also shown on Russian television.
Usmanova first stated that the evacuees were all terrified and unsure of what they could or could not say. After the reporter said she could say whatever she wanted, Usmanova emphasized that her family had decided not to travel to Ukraine and that if they did decide to return, they would only go to Mariupol, not Ukraine.
Usmanova stated that when the fighting began in Mariupol, the Ukrainian army refused to allow civilians to leave, effectively using civilians as human shields.
In the recording, Usmanova tells reporters that Azov militants “kept us in the bunker” for two months and did not allow her family to leave using the humanitarian corridors established by Russian troops. “They hid behind the fact that they are supposedly concerned about our safety,” Usmanova said, according to a German translation, adding that her family was repeatedly yelled at to “Go back to the bunker!”
“Ukraine has died for me as a state,” Usmanova said at the end of her testimony.
"How will Western viewers learn the truth especially when Russian TV channels, as we all know, are being banned from Western countries?” Polyanskiy asked. “Who is spreading propaganda here? Make a judgment yourself."
"Instead of promoting journalism, freedom of speech, and access to information, you choose the path of becoming soldiers in the information war against Russia,” he stressed.
Polyanskiy also pointed out that the German magazine Der Spiegel published a longer version of Usmanova's interview, but then deleted it within hours.
“We don’t have any doubts as to why,” he said.
It is worth mentioning that the territorial defense staff of the Donetsk People's Republic reported on Monday that 101 people were evacuated from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to Bezymennoye.
