OSCE duped into false ‘Russian soldiers’ report by separatists

Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s east have apparently tried to discredit international monitors by planting a fake story about Russian soldiers.

In its report for Aug. 2, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said separatist fighters had introduced themselves as Russian servicemen, immediately prompting an uproar in Ukrainian and Western media.

“An armed man guarding the facility at one of the sites claimed that he and those present at the site were part of the 16th airborne brigade from Orenburg, Russian Federation. They did not wear identifying insignia,” the report read.

The information was widely circulated in Ukrainian and international media and portrayed as proof of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Information Politics, however, that is precisely what the separatist fighters had been counting on.

“In regards to the information in the OSCE report for Aug. 2 about how one of the armed terrorists identified himself and other Russian mercenaries as ‘part of the 16th airborne brigade from Orenburg – there is no such brigade. So we believe that this may have been a planned information operation to discredit Ukrainian media and the OSCE, or it may have just been the stupidity of the Russian terrorists,” a statement on the ministry’s Facebook page read.

If the ministry is right, it would suggest the Russian-backed separatists have reverted to the old Soviet tactic of disinformation, or the deliberate spreading of false information to dupe one’s enemy.

Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.