Donbas Militants Spread Fakes about the Scale of COVID-19 Pandemic in Ukraine

On June 28, militants stopped the passage of citizens through «Olenivka» checkpoint. It is the only checkpoint that allow citizens to cross the demarcation line. The occupation authorities explain the closure of the checkpoint by concern for the safety of residents of the territories not controlled by the government of Ukraine. At the same time local media do not inform residents of certain districts of the Donetsk region (CDDR) about the real situation with the coronavirus.

«Ukraine has a very unfavorable epidemiological situation, the number of COVID-19 patients is growing rapidly, there are anti-records in terms of morbidity and mortality. According to Ukrainian officials, the second wave of the disease is coming into force. In order to protect our citizens and to prevent the mass spread of coronavirus infection among the people of the DPR, the Head of the Republic Denys Pushylin signed Decree № 206, which suspends movement across the line of demarcation with Ukraine,» — reported in a statement from the so-called «operational headquarters for the prevention of the coronavirus epidemic in the DPR».

At the same time, CDDR propagandists do not inform the residents of the occupied Donetsk region that 481 cases of coronavirus disease were confirmed as on June 30 in the territories controlled by the Ukrainian government, and 9 people died. And according to the so-called «DPR Ministry of Health» 1136 cases of the disease were recorded in the CDDR, and 71 people died from coronavirus.

Therefore, the level of morbidity and mortality in the occupied Donetsk region is several times higher than in the territories controlled by Ukraine.

But global coronavirus pandemic has become a favorite topic for CDDR propagandists.

In March they began to distribute fakes. Initially about the outbreak of coronavirus in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU). So-called «official news agency of the DPR» DAN since March constantly reports about hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas who suffer from coronavirus, as well as deaths among Ukrainian defenders in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone.

Headings in militants' media about the alleged outbreak of coronavirus in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Propagandists reported that doctors of Mariupol, controlled by the Ukrainian government, are massively dismissed due to the fact that the hospitals of the seaside city are overcrowded with coronavirus-infected soldiers of the AFU.

Militants' media also reported that the 57th brigade of the AFU left its positions in Donbas due to panic caused by the coronavirus epidemic among the military.

In April, ORDO propagandists stated that the military command in Donbas was hiding from the headquarters more than a hundred cases of coronavirus among Ukrainian military men.

Since March, even more fantastic fakes constantly appear in the news on the occupied Luhansk region. So, Luhansk propagandists almost every day declare about half a thousand soldiers of the AFU who are infected and die from coronavirus. Also, militants spread fakes that Ukrainian soldiers with COVID-19 escape from quarantine and rob pharmacies and shops and that military men with COVID-19 are not being treated in the JFO zone.

Militants spread fakes about Ukrainian soldiers

At the same time, none of this news was officially confirmed — the press service of the Medical Forces of the AFU reports daily the number of cases of coronavirus among the military of the Armed Forces, this data is not hidden. But there has not been a single case of COVID-19 among military servicemen in the JFO zone.

Also, CDDR media constantly report that Ukraine is not ready for a coronavirus pandemic, does not control the situation, and does not have enough tests and medicines.

At the same time, no strict quarantine was imposed in the occupied Donetsk region to prevent the spread of the coronavirus — transport, markets and even nightclubs did not stop working in the CDDR. Observance of the mask regime in public places in the occupied Donetsk region is practically not controlled. At the same time, mass events are being held there, the last of which was the so-called «victory parade» in the occupied by militants Donetsk.

On the photos published by the propagandists, most of the people who came to the parade do not wear masks.

Most of the people who came to the parade do not wear masks

At the same time, CDDR media shyly keep silent about the connection between the complete disregard for quarantine measures and the high level of morbidity and mortality in occupied Donbas.

Moreover, in early June, propagandists from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions stated that the situation with coronavirus infection in the so-called «Donetsk People's Republic» is stable, there is no sharp increase in the incidence.

In April representatives of the Donetsk militants' command said that the coronavirus was created in «secret Ukrainian laboratories working for the Central Intelligence Agency».

According to Donetsk militants, in the secret Ukrainian laboratories located in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Ternopil, Lviv and Uzhgorod, there was a leak of strains of dangerous infections.

The question why a pandemic of a dangerous disease, the leakage of which allegedly occurred in Ukraine, began in China, did not bother the CDDR propagandists, they simply ignored it.