The horror that unfolded when a Russian missile hit a mall in the Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk was shown around the world. But if you were watching Russian TV that day, you probably wouldn’t have seen anything of it.
The Russian media shutdown of the attack, which left at least 18 dead according to the Ukrainian government, is part of a playbook on how similar attacks have been handled as the Kremlin tries to present itself as a liberating force that it does not harm civilians.
And with images of charred bodies appearing in the foreign press, Russian officials began declaring the strike a “Bucha-like provocation,” ignoring evidence of war crimes amid growing international isolation.
Television, the most controlled sector of the Russian media, did not mention the strike in Monday’s main nightly news. Only when confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, which stated without evidence that there was ammunition stored in the mall, most Russian media began coverage.
The blackout extended far beyond the state media. Private radio, online media and print media also followed the Kremlin line, with tabloids such as the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda and the business newspaper Kommersant ignoring the strike. Even private news outlets such as Interfax did not mention it until Tuesday, carefully presenting their pieces in response to Russian officials who called the attack fake.
The answer is part of Russia’s evolving wartime propaganda. On the first day of the war, Roskomnadzor, the Russian censor, wrote that the media were “obliged to use information and data obtained only from Russian official sources.” Since then, local media have been shut down or learned to follow their Russian army examples before reporting on the news of the day.
Channel One, Russia’s leading television channel, began broadcasting news on Monday evening with the story of a Russian soldier receiving an award from the Kremlin. The broadcast then moved on to Russian attacks on Kyiv, mimicking claims by the Russian Defense Ministry that damage to a residential building was caused by Ukraine’s own air defense systems rather than a Russian missile.
“This is the building they’re talking about,” a mocking journalist chanted. “Western canals have presented everything as if our army had collided with a civilian building. But the rockets were actually Ukrainian and the building, according to available information, had been empty since April.”
The pattern was repeated with the strike in Kremenchuk, with a few Russian experts preparing the ground to call it false even before Moscow commented.
“We should wait for an official comment,” said Vladimir Soloviev, a popular Russian talk show host. “But this site has probably used it [Ukrainian] military for a long time. There are very few women for some reason. “
Advancing Russian media reported two conflicting stories: that there was no evacuation because the mall had been closed for some time, and that the Ukrainians had been killed because the mall was used as an ammunition depot. .
“It doesn’t even look like the mall was open,” wrote War against Fakes, a Telegram channel run by Russian state media. A day later, the Russian army produced a completely different story, confirming that there had been a strike.
But that did not change the verdict later handed down by War against Fakes. “We have thoroughly reviewed where they hit the missiles and why the Ukrainian version is not accurate,” he said.