On March 9, 2022, three people, including a child, were killed in an attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine. This drama and the controversy surrounding it are an example of the other war – of communication – between Russia and Ukraine, each accusing the other of propaganda, fake news and manipulation. Russia has multiplied the versions of the facts and denounced a staging, pointing in particular to the presence on the spot of Marianna, a beauty influencer who would have played the role of two victims. For their part, the Ukrainians and their Western supporters immediately denounced a war crime committed by Vladimir Putin’s army.
A few days after the bombardment, Marianna broke the silence by granting an interview to another blogger, who supports pro-Russian separatists in Donbass. If she refutes any staging, Marianna claims not to have heard a plane. According to her, it was a shell, not an air strike. “Complément d’Enquête” tried to contact her and the blogger who interviewed her, but without success.
Pictures “fairly characteristic of the explosion of an aerial bomb of 500 kilos”
On the other hand, the journalists found in Rotterdam a family survivor of the attack on the maternity ward. Olga, the mother, was injured in the face, and she is adamant : “It was an airstrike, she says, because we heard the sound of a plane. Immediately after this noise, there was a huge explosion, which created a huge crater. The Russians hide their crimes : they can’t even admit it. Even confess that they attack Ukraine, they don’t want to do it ! They say they are coming to free us. Well it’s the same thing : they say it wasn’t an airstrike, when it was!
What does a Russian aviation specialist think? ? “Complément d’Enquête” asked Antoine Boissy to analyze the images. The depth of the crater, its diameter, the windows of the maternity ward blown by the blast of the explosion, the charred trees, the destroyed vehicles… For him, everything seems to indicate that these are indeed characteristic signs of “the explosion of an aerial bomb of 500 kilos, a fairly standard weapon in staffing, especially in the Russian Air Force”. On the fact that it is a Russian air strike, the consensus among the experts is total, he assures.
Extract from “War crimes: the face of the executioners”, a document to see in “Complément d’Enquête” on June 23, 2022.
> Replays of France Télévisions news magazines are available on the franceinfo website and its mobile application (iOS & Android), “Magazines” section.