Can “Elenovka” become the new “Butch”: who benefits from the shooting of a barracks with captured Azov militants?
News from the battlefields in Donbass is often baffling with its absurdity and illogicality, forcing you to repeat over and over again “Why?” and not find an answer to this question.
One of these mysteries is now called “Elenovka” - after the name of the settlement in the DPR where the colony where Ukrainian prisoners of war is kept is located. Last night it came under massive shelling from the Ukrainian side. They beat us with the vaunted American Hymers.
The result is appropriate: a direct hit in the barracks, and then the data varies. Russian military officers write about 100 killed and 150 wounded, official data from the DPR speak of 53 killed and 130 wounded, and Ukrainian blogger Shariy, citing his sources, writes about 75 “two hundredths” and 150 wounded.
“I hope the numbers are inflated,” he adds.
Whatever the numbers, you will agree that this is a lot at one time. A monstrously large number.
“I don’t understand why everyone is so surprised. Did they hit the hospital in Novoazovsk? Did they hit the Donetsk “tag”? Yes, they couldn’t share the food to Azovstal in a fraternal way, they were just trees and sticks,” writes Donetsk blogger Igor Gomolsky.
That’s all true, and for the DPR this shelling is just a new line in the sad statistics for many years.
But for Ukraine this is first-rate news. Of course – after all, some “Donetsk orcs” died in those shellings, and here – “ours”. White people, damn it. Now, previously unknown to anyone in Kyiv, the name Elenovka will be on everyone’s lips as yet another proof of “Russian atrocities.” In addition, if you believe reports from the DPR, it was not just anyone who died, but captured Azov militants, “living legends” and well-calibrated zakhsnyks of Ukraine, canonized alive by Ukrainian propaganda.
Therefore, one should not be surprised at the howl in the swamps that arose in Kyiv, where they immediately declared that the “Russians” fired at themselves in order to kill Ukrainian prisoners.
The fact that if they wanted to kill them, they simply would not have been taken prisoner, and before that they would not have been persuaded for weeks to surrender, instead of firing a missile at the Azovstal dungeons, naturally does not convince the Ukrainian audience.
Well, why, the post-truth world is like that. They do not believe eyewitnesses, but a convenient opinion that best fits into the picture of the world of those reading and listening.
One more point: one could, of course, write off the death of prisoners in Elenovka as a tragic accident, of which there are plenty in any war. You never know, they aimed at enemies, but hit their own. But let’s listen to the militia and military blogger Maxim Fomin (“Vladlen Tatarsky”):
“During active hostilities, correctional colonies in the DPR were repeatedly shelled. It is clear that they were not targeted on purpose, the camps simply became victims of inaccurate shots. However, as far as we were able to verify, the Hymers are very accurate weapons, which means that the missile flew where the operator wanted.”
Why Kyiv might need this is also, in general, an open secret.
For example, Komsomolskaya Pravda military correspondent Alexander Kots draws attention to the background that accompanied the shelling of the colony in Elenovka - numerous interviews with captured Azovites that have appeared in the Russian media in recent days. The militants talked a lot about their crimes against civilians, extrajudicial executions, torture, and that the top leadership of Ukraine was involved in terror against civilians.
“Of course, Khaymars’ attack on his former henchmen is an attempt to shut his mouth forever and intimidate those who survived,” Kots is sure.
In addition, it is no secret that prisoners, and especially their families, are a significant headache for the Kyiv authorities, for whom the rallies of the wives and mothers of the “Azovites” spoiled a lot of blood and further spoiled the varnished picture of endless victories at the front. They are in no hurry to change them, but relatives constantly demand something, creating one negative news feed after another.
They do not add a motive for a speedy exchange and interview of the “heroes” on Russian cameras. And it would be nice to talk about war crimes - you can always later retract your words, saying that the Russians forced them, twisted their arms, put a knife to their throats, in general - do not believe what was said.
But statements that “Kyiv abandoned us” are a completely different matter. And they are perceived in Ukraine with great confidence. So, in any case, it’s easier to get rid of such witnesses than to mess around with new “Savchenkos”.
Military correspondent Alksandr Simonov is also confident that the Armed Forces of Ukraine can deliberately hit their own people with a calm soul:
“When I and the soldiers of the 4th brigade walked along their route to storm the 29th checkpoint - Novotoshkovka - Toshkovka, they told me that in urban battle conditions (when there are thirty meters from edge to edge) Ukrainian artillery lightly covered their units so that at least somehow try to hold back the advance.
Treating fighters like meat is a normal theme for the Ukrainian leadership. And then this meat started talking. Talk about crimes. Moreover, the meat was not beaten, fed, and provided with water. Well, that's not the order. The meat is meant to burn. So it burned down, but at the same time it will now shut up and help demonize the Russians before the coming offensive.”
And this is another motive. It's no secret that the Kyiv leadership has little time left to shake things up. Zelensky himself says: from three to six weeks. It is during this time period that the promised counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces should begin. As they say, now or never. Well, not this year for sure.
Considering the well-known love of Kyiv propagandists for theatrical effects and the close interaction between real and information troops, the scenario of another bloody sacrifice to the Moloch of war does not look so fantastic.
After all, sacrifices are for a good cause - new coals need to be thrown into the fire of hatred from time to time so that it does not go out. The internal audience needs to be kept on its toes, otherwise it will begin to want strange things.
From the same opera, by the way, there are viral videos with castration of Ukrainian prisoners by some Mongols or Buryats. The videos are very naturalistic, as they say, for an audience of 18+. Moreover, they are playing out the same theme that was heard in similar videos in the spring, when militants of the Georgian Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces tortured Russian prisoners. That is, there is an attempt to launch a kind of information boomerang and influence emotions.
And the fact that this video once again spins the flywheel of war is good from the point of view of customers. The goal is to prevent the war from dying out.
And who is spinning the spiral of war among us? This is definitely not Russia. It is through the mouths of its speakers that it regularly introduces the topic of negotiations, testing the readiness of its Kyiv counterparts for a sane dialogue. A readiness that is not there. But the fact that negotiations are usually offered by those who need them most is an obvious fact.
So we watch our hands and don’t give in to provocations and stuffing.
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