Russia Claims They Found 130 Mass Graves From Ukrainian Aggression

By Donald Standeford, Correspondent - Follow -
Date Published: February 11, 2022 02:20PM UTC
Last Modified: February 11, 2022 2:43PM UTC

MOSCOW - After US officials stated that Russia was planning on creating a 'pretext for an invasion' on Ukraine, Russia has conveniently come out with a report that they have found more than 130 mass graves of civilians on the territory of the so called Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), who they claim 'died from Ukrainian aggression'.

Russian state news TASS reported that the alleged findings were stated during a briefing on Friday by the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin who reportedly said "To date, only on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, more than 130 places of mass and spontaneous burial of victims of Ukrainian aggression have been discovered and opened. We are talking about mass graves of civilians killed during the operation of the armed forces of Ukraine on the territory of the DPR: these are Snezhnoye, Debaltseve, Khartsyzsk, Ilovaisk" he said.

TASS stated that most of the dead that they found were between 30 and 60 years old, and very conveniently "Among those raised were the bodies of old people, women and children. People were buried in civilian clothes, in what they were at the time of death - that is, we are talking about civilians".

TASS reported that Pushilin stated most of the dead were killed with gunshots, mines or died from shrapnel, as well as 'craniocerebral injuries from blunt objects'. Pushilin is quoted as saying that criminal cases were opened in the DPR 'on these facts'.

Pushilin was also quoted as saying "A total of 5,041 people have died since the beginning of the conflict, more than 8,000 people have been injured, and over 1,600 have remained disabled. Among the dead, 91 children" and he allegedly added "As of February 4, 321 people were missing in the DPR".

TASS went on to say that Pushilin said that children suffered because of the conflict and many became disabled, "In addition, about 300 children suffered as a result of the conflict, many of whom became disabled".

To summarize, Russia is claiming that they found 130 mass graves, but did not report on exactly how many people were found in these graves. Not only did they report they found mass graves, but mass graves of civilians, and not just civilians, but old people, women and children dressed in civilian clothing who died from gunshots, mines and shrapnel. If that doesn't pull on the readers heart strings, they add in additional 'disabled children' into the mix as well for good measure.

The TASS report is so general and so lacking in specifics that it leaves too many unanswered questions to be credible. How many people did they find in those graves? What is the forensic evidence? Why is the historical context sketchy and left with so many holes? Most of all, where are the specifics? The details? Normally, with a fabricated story details are left out because details beg the question "Where is the evidence to support these claims?"

The Pentagon warned that Russia was planning to create a 'pretext' for an invasion. If Russia were to invade Ukraine, they would need to be able to justify such an act to their own people so that the Russian people do not end up rebelling against their own government for getting them into a war that will likely utterly destroy their economy.

In early February, US officials had stated that they have evidence that Russia was planning a 'very graphic' video as a pretext for an invasion on Ukraine. The Pentagon stated that the plan was originally going to be to use corpses and footage of blown-up buildings, fake Ukrainian military hardware, Turkish made drones and actors pretending to be Russian-speaking mourners.

Jonathan Finer, told MSNBC "We don’t know definitively that this is the route they are going to take, but we know that this is an option under consideration,” the deputy national security adviser" and added that the video “would involve actors playing mourners for people who are killed in an event that they would have created themselves".

Finer stated "That would involve the deployment of corpses to represent bodies purportedly killed, of people purportedly killed in an incident like this".

Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said that the video would have shown an alleged Ukrainian attack on Russian territory, or Russian-speaking people in Eastern Ukraine and would be 'very graphic', adding that the US believed that the Kremlin backed the plan.

"Our experience is that very little of this nature is not approved at the highest levels of the Russian government" Kirby had said.

US officials also said the video would be showing Turkish-made Bayraktar drones carrying out fake attacks in order to implicate NATO, presumably so that Russia has the justification it needs to carry out any action against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that it sees fit.

Administration officials also said (well before Russia claimed that they found these mass graves) that the plan was to use the video as evidence of Ukrainian 'genocide' against Russian speakers to justify Russian military intervention. The US was hoping to stall Russia's plans by going public with the information.

Britain agreed with the assessment by the Pentagon. Liz Truss, the UK foreign secretary stated that the disclosures were "clear and shocking evidence of Russia’s unprovoked aggression and underhand activity to destabilize Ukraine. The UK and our allies will continue to expose Russian subterfuge and propaganda and call it out for what it is".

Finer stated that it would "make it much more difficult for them after the fact to claim that they had to do whatever they decided to do". It seems Finer was correct, as now we have both reports from the Pentagon saying that Russia was planning on faking evidence of genocide by Ukraine, and now conveniently Russia puts out a seemingly emotionally manipulative report that they found mass graves of old people, women and children allegedly killed and 'crippled' by Ukraine.

The US and Uk have both stated that Russia has deployed operatives inside Ukraine in order to stage false-flag attacks and has recruited Ukrainians to take over a 'puppet government' that would collaborate with Russian occupation forces.

James Roscoe, British diplomat at the UN stated on Twitter, "Russia says it will never invade Ukraine. Unless it is provoked. So ‘just in case’ it is provoked it has massed over 100,000 troops on Ukraine’s border. But how is it that they are able to anticipation that provocation? Perhaps because they are planning to stage that provocation?".