Again and again, social media influence the course of the war in the Ukraine war. Now the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense is cracking down.
Kyiv – After damaging one of the Patriot anti-aircraft systems important for Ukraine's air defense, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense has blamed military bloggers in the country for the incident. The ministry called on those affected to publicly show remorse because of the dissemination of film footage. This was reported on Wednesday (17 May) by dpa, among others.
As a result, the well-known military blogger Inna Voronova had to publicly ask for forgiveness in a video distributed by the Ukrainian secret service SBU. Voronova had already apologized on her own Instagram account for the publication of a video that may have given Russia clues about the location of the damaged Patriot system. In addition to her, a total of six bloggers are accused of serious betrayal of secrets. Prison sentences of up to eight years would be possible.
In April, the first Patriot systems were delivered to Ukraine. However, their locations are to remain secret. (Archive photo) © Pawel Supernak/dpa
Ukraine accuses bloggers of "involvement" in Russian attack on Patriot system
The imprudence of the bloggers is said to have led to a targeted attack on a US Patriot system in Kiev on Tuesday. According to Ukrainian sources, all six attacking missiles were destroyed in the attack, but sources in the United States subsequently reported at least one damaged launcher at the militarily significant facility.
Ukrainian authorities have now defused the American report and reiterated that the Patriot system is "in operation" and "everything is fine," as the AFP news agency quoted a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force as saying. The spokesman did not confirm that the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft system had actually been damaged before.
Attack on Kyiv in Ukraine war: Russia denies launching its "miracle weapon"
Russia, on the other hand, denied that six hypersonic missiles had been shot down in the attack on the air defense system. The Ministry of Defense under Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the Russian armed forces had hit the anti-aircraft system with a hypersonic missile of the Kinschal type. Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously touted this as "invincible" and a kind of miracle weapon.
Ukraine had been fighting for a long time over the winter for the supply of modern Western weapons and defense systems. In April, the country received the first shipment of US-produced systems from its Western allies. The modern weapon system is used to combat larger targets in the air such as aircraft, drones, missiles and cruise missiles. (saka with dpa/AFP
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