Firing from the village

Filming from an ‘secret location,’ an RT journalist lent a hand in documenting further how Russian forces intentionally fire from residential areas in order to provoke Ukrainian forces with the intent of drawing return fire on the area.

In the segment, the correspondent tells viewers that they are preparing to fire Grad rockets at nearby Ukrainian soldiers, which a Russian soldier, described as an “anti-government fighter,” says always hits its targets. In the video, a house is seen in the background of what appears to be a village.

The camera then pans to show that they have started a large fire on the property of a small home adjacent to their set-up.

They then, realizing the damage they have caused and knowing this may warrant return-fire from the nearby Ukrainian forces, promptly flee the area.

We’re going to get out of here because now it is dangerous […] there is the fear that missiles will start coming in, so let’s get out of here.

The practice of firing from residential areas by Russians has been long documented in the war and has utility both in providing human shields, or in aiding the propaganda that Ukraine is intentionally firing on civilians for no particular reason. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also made public threats that Russian forces would use women and children as human shields.

‘Grad’ rocket launchers, which translates literally to “hail,” are a weapon which relies on scorching a given area rather than hitting specific targets. Ruling on quantity of strikes over quality, the volley of unguided rockets from a Grad have been described as a “definite psychological weapon.”

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Tags: Donbas war (2014-present), Russian propaganda