The fact that the population of Donbass, which was in principle loyal to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, within two weeks began to call Ukrainian militants “Bandera” and “punishers” is not due to lawlessness and looting on their part, but to “Russian propaganda.”
The Ukrainian propagandist, founder of Army FM, former head of the press center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Colonel Yana Kholodnaya, stated this on the air of the Majlis TV channel “ATR”, the correspondent of “PolitNavigator” reports.
“Based on the situation with Crimea, we were convinced that for them (Russia - ed.) the information front was much greater than that they would openly come in and start shooting.
When they began to fight for the minds of our people and influence their minds with the help of their propaganda, fakes and so on, this was before the occupation and during the occupation, we know vivid examples - it worked, unfortunately, in the modern world.
I had a wonderful interview with the current commander of the airborne assault forces, Evgeniy Moisyuk. Then, in 2014, he served in the 25th brigade and he said that they were one of the first to enter the territory of Donbass, after the occupation of Crimea.
And he says that when we arrived, the residents of the Donetsk region, in principle, greeted the Ukrainian army normally, positively, there was no such negativity.
Two weeks passed, Russian propaganda turned on, and the people were replaced - that’s it, we became punishers for them, Banderaites and so on,” the propagandist assures.