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>Did Russian Kinzhal Missile Take Out 'NATO Command Center' in Ukraine?
There is also no information about the news outlet's background or ownership. All of the website affiliation data has been "redacted for privacy," according to domain checker WhoIS.
It lists an American conspiracy theorist Gordon Duff among its board members; Duff was previously the chairman of "Veterans Today", a fringe conspiracy and anti-Semitic outlet. Duff himself said "about 30% of what's written on Veterans Today, is patently false."
TheIntelDrop's report cites a number of unverified Twitter accounts and the ProNews article as its source for the claim.
ProNews did indeed publish such an article, though references to it misleadingly suggest this was a recent development, whereas the article was in fact published earlier this month, on March 12.
Back then the article was picked up and shared by pro-Russian users, including one claiming "NATO command and control HQ in #Kiev was struck by Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, many #Pentagon top officials perish in this strike."
However, the Greek website, which has a history of publishing sensationalist and misleading material, such as one article claiming that Florida is seceding from the United States, offers very little in the way of evidence in the original story about the supposed strike.
"Dozens of dead NATO and Ukrainian officers," the article opens, translated from Greek. "Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a target impact speed of Mach 12 (twelve times the speed of sound) managed to hit the Ukrainian-NATO joint command, control and communications center installed at a depth of 130 meters!"
The author simply states: "The Russians say they have pulled 40 dead from the wreckage of the underground headquarters so far, but most will never be recovered as they were buried by the debris."
No specific sources or outlets are mentioned anywhere in the story, which instead proceeds to quote Ukrainian officials, who make no mention of NATO casualties.
While it is unclear what "Russian" sources ProNews based its reporting on, a large-scale shelling of Ukraine did indeed take place on the night of March 9, 2023, as Newsweek reported at the time.
The attack, which Russia called retaliation for a reported sabotage incident that took place days earlier in Russia's border region of Bryanks, involved a wide array of Russian missiles, including the aforementioned Kinzhals.
Ukraine was hit with a barrage of 81 missiles overnight, including six Kinzhal ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian military said at the time, with at least six civilians being reported dead in the strikes that targeted 10 regions, including Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipro, Odesa, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
The narrative appears to stem from Russian military bloggers and pro-Kremlin outlets and Telegram channels, with one post claiming a "shadow headquarters of NATO" in Ukraine was hit in the strike.
That reporting, published on March 9, cites unnamed "Ukrainian insiders" and "online platforms," but provides no further proof or corroborating evidence.
While claims made by the opposing sides during this conflict are notoriously unreliable and difficult or even impossible to verify, there is little to suggest that a NATO "bunker" had been hit in the strike, or that one even exists.
Ukrainian military command stated that the country's air force had succeeded in shooting down 34 of the cruise missiles fired during the March 9 barrage, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks hit "critical infrastructure and residential buildings."
Russia's defense ministry likewise made no mention of "NATO" or Western military personnel being targeted in the strike, saying simply that it hit "Ukraine's military infrastructure, military-industrial complex enterprises, as well as energy facilities" using high-precision, long-range air, sea and land-based weapons."
"The goal of the attacks was achieved and all the designated targets were struck," including 'unmanned aerial vehicle bases" and "production facilities for the repair of military equipment and the production of ammunition," the ministry said at the time, without offering corroborating evidence.