by Enrico Oliari –
A Russian missile hit yesterday an exhibition event at the Chernihiv theater in northern Ukraine, just below Belarus. Seven people were killed in the explosion, including a six-year-old girl, and 148 were injured. The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has sworn revenge for an action, which he defines as “terrorist”, “which – he said – will lead to a very harsh response” by the Ukrainian forces. Zelensky specified that the name of the girl killed was Sofia, and that “15 other children were injured”.
In the media communication of war, an art that the Ukrainian president seems to know well, the finger is constantly placed on dead or wounded children, perhaps in the explosion of a civilian building such as a hospital, a school or, in this case, a theater .
In this case too, however, the reality is different, without detracting from the drama of the event: essentially a meeting of drone manufacturers and traders was taking place in the theatre, as well as training packages for driving unmanned aircraft. The same drones that are being launched (currently with limited success) over Russia, especially over Moscow.
Confirming that the drone fair was underway at the Chernihiv theater was one of the organizers of the “Fierce Birds” event, Maria Berlinska, who specified that “only guests could know the place”, in this case “engineers , military and volunteers on the topic of military technologies for the front”.
It seems clear that Russian spies warned the Russians of the presence of drone sellers and buyers in one place, and in fact Berlinska explained on Facebook that “we are working with the SBU (Ukrainian intelligence) for the investigation”.
Zelensky therefore lied, or at least hid the truth: a children’s operetta was not going on at the theater, but a fair of arms builders and sellers, a concentration of soldiers and arms manufacturers which understandably becomes target of the enemy.