>Morning, frenz
>Mornin' Ralph… Please pass the Dark Roast Covfefe.
Did Russian Kinzhal Missile Take Out 'NATO Command Center' in Ukraine?
By Yevgeny Kuklychev On 3/31/23 at 9:36 AM EDT
A Russian precision strike supposedly destroyed an underground "NATO command center" in Ukraine earlier this month, with "dozens" of Western officers and military personnel purportedly killed in the "Kinzhal" (or "Dagger) missile attack.
At least, that is the claim circulating on some social media channels, including those known for spreading pro-Kremlin talking points and Russian propaganda.
In some cases the claim was supported by a photo of the supposed strike site, showing large-scale devastation and a burned-down building.
Russian MiG-31 Ukraone Oblast
In this combination image, a Ukrainian soldier of the 80th Brigade in the ruins of a house bombed by the Russian army on March 9,2023 in Konstantinovka,Donetsk Oblast and an inset photo of a Russian MiG-31 supersonic interceptor jet carrying a hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missile. Social media posts spread baseless claims purporting a "shadow NATO command center" in Ukraine was destroyed in the strikes. Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde/YURI KADOBNOV/AFP Getty Images
But is there any factual basis to the claim? Newsweek Misinformation Watch pulled at the threads—and found that most of the elements and sources contained in the claim do not stand up to scrutiny.
Several Twitter and Telegram posts, totaling hundreds of thousands of views in late March 2023, purported that a NATO HQ in Ukraine was destroyed, with "up to 300 people" killed in the strike.
"A terrifying strike of the Russian supersonic missile 'Dagger' at a depth of 130 meters on the NATO command center in Ukraine!": Greek Pronews writes about the huge losses among NATO officers as a result of the missile attack," one post read.
"40 corpses, dozens more bodies remain under the rubble - details of the Russian "retaliation strike" on the NATO command center have appeared," wrote the account named "Russian Victory is Inevitable."
"Greek media: dozens of NATO officers are buried in a secret bunker destroyed by "Daggers" in Ukraine. According to the Greek portal Pronews, received by the editors from "American sources," another post said.
Most of the posts on Twitter and Telegram appeared to base the claim on one of two sources: An obscure Greek news website ProNews and an outlet called "The Intel Drop." The trustworthiness of both sources is highly questionable, however.
TheIntelDrop describes itself as "an unaligned news source for the intelligence and financial community," but the awkward wording, basic grammar mistakes ("oversite") and strange terminology, such as "black propaganda", raise suspicions, indicating that it likely was not written by a native English speaker.
https://www.newsweek.com/russia-nato-ukraine-command-center-strike-kinzhal-missile-1791805
>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.
>>Did Russian Kinzhal Missile Take Out 'NATO Command Center' in Ukraine?
A number of posts that referenced the "NATO" hit used an out-of-context photo, supposedly of the aftermath of the Kinzhal strike. The image was in fact screengrabbed from a video of a Russian missile assault of the village of Al-Hamran, east of Aleppo in Syria in March 2021, further undermining the veracity of this claim.
Misinformation Watch has not been able to find any authoritative sources or reliable evidence that would corroborate the unsourced Telegram claims and ProNews' reporting (and the dissemination of this narrative by Russian state-linked sources raises further suspicions).
While that does not entirely rule out the possibility that such a hit took place, there is little evidence to suggest that it did. Furthermore, the scale of the purported casualties (up to 300 people, according to some of the reports) would have been very difficult to conceal, especially if the vast majority of them had been Western nations' citizens.
False, misleading, and unevidenced claims as well as outright propaganda, often targeting NATO and seeking to undermine Western support for Ukraine, have become a hallmark feature of this conflict, as reported widely by Newsweek and others.
Newsweek reached out to the Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries for comment via email, and NATO via its press center.
Victor vicktop55
@vicktop55
“A terrifying strike of the Russian supersonic missile “Dagger” at a depth of 130 meters on the NATO command center in Ukraine!”: Greek Pronews writes about the huge losses among NATO officers as a result of the missile attack.
“The Russian hypersonic missile “Kinzhal” managed to hit the joint Ukrainian-NATO control and communications center, installed at a depth of 130 meters. The underground headquarters housed NATO officials and reportedly housed over 300 people. Most of them are British and Poles, but there were also Americans and representatives of private companies that support communications and data transmission. This is the first massive strike against NATO personnel and it is not known how Western capitals will react. It will be the same as recognizing the active participation of personnel in the war against Russia. In the coming days, it will be seen to what extent this will affect the conduct of Ukrainian and Western operations and attempts to stop the Russian offensive on Bakhmut" http://t.me/vicktop55/14120
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7:30 AM · Mar 30, 2023
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51K
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https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status/1641402626632720386
It's a dig starting point, anon.
Posting fake news "fact-checking" or "debooonking" a story is practically sauce for the truth of the story.
translated from Greek.
supposedly original sauce for the some of the reports
https://www.pronews.gr/amyna-asfaleia/enoples-sygkroyseis/ektakto-tromaktiko-ktypima-se-120-metra-vathos-me-rosiko-yper-yperixitiko-vlima-kinzhal-sto-kentro-dioikisis-tou-nato-stin-oukrania/
>"3" dead.
"wounded" not dead
2 months ago - 50°24′N 30°28′E
3 person wounded in Kyiv as result of Russian missile attack
>walking distance from the airport
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4.6
9 reviews
a year ago
Have been to this restaurant! The atmosphere is cozy and family friendly! The prepared meals were delicious!
We will come to you again!