“On March 10… the Kyiv regime deliberately carried out a strike using four aircraft-type UAVs on a stationary medical facility on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic”, - the Ministry of Defense of russia unexpectedly stated on March 12, that is, two days after the supposed attack by Ukrainian UAVs.
According to the russian military department, “eight medics were killed, and another ten people, including nine medics, received injuries of varying severity”. It was reported that “at the moment of the strike, more than 130 patients and about 50 members of the medical staff were in the medical facility”.
For the leadership of the “DNR” and the media under its control, this statement came as a complete surprise — there had been no reports in the information field of the occupied Donbas about the alleged “terrorist act” that supposedly took place on March 10. Moreover, the ministry’s report did not name either the settlement where the “medics were killed” or the name of the hospital. Only the date — March 10.
Local propagandists had to limit themselves to a verbatim reprint from the Ministry of Defense of russia. And to give it at least a semblance of credibility, they tried to find visual confirmation of the claims.
The fact is that two medical institutions in Donetsk were indeed damaged as a result of a strike by the AFU, but they were not damaged by drone strikes, rather due to a detonation at a large weapons depot of the russians located in the residential area of the city. And this happened not on March 10, but on March 8. This is what Donetsk media wrote at the time: “On International Women’s Day they struck civilian objects in the Kyivskyi district of the DNR capital, as a result of which three civilians were wounded and more than 10 civilian objects were damaged. One of these objects turned out to be a children’s hospital, which, fortunately, was closed for repairs at that moment…”; “The glazing of a nearby clinic was also damaged”. That is, there was not even any mention of dead medical staff.
But the discrepancy in the dates and their own information on the matter did not bother Donetsk propagandists. They began actively circulating photographs and videos from March 8, “confirming” with them the statement of the Ministry of Defense of russia from March 12 about events that supposedly took place on March 10.
The source of this “evidence” was said to be the so-called “DNR Defense Headquarters”. Indeed, it was distributed to local and russian media. However, apparently realizing that such a primitive lie could easily be exposed, it removed them.
“Enemy Telegram channels are offering residents of Donetsk money for photos of destroyed hospitals and dead doctors! We remind you that criminal liability is foreseen for such assistance. This is no longer just a fine for a video of a strike impact, but real betrayal and state treason”, - the “headquarters” explained the complete absence of visual confirmation of the statement of the russian Ministry of Defense.