Russian pro-war bloggers blame Ukrainian civilians after deadly missile strike

A Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday killed 20 people, among them nine children. Images of the aftermath of the strike and details of the devastation triggered anger around the world, more than three years after Moscow's invasion. In Russia, pro-war military bloggers blamed Ukrainian civilians for their own deaths.

• A Russian ballistic missile hit a residential area with a children’s playground nearby, Kryvyi Rih Mayor Aleksandr Vikul said. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed that it had carried out a “high-precision missile attack with a high-explosive missile on the site of a meeting between unit commanders and Western military instructors in one of the city’s restaurants.” It claimed that “85 servicemen and officers of foreign states” were killed. Russia has not published any evidence to support its statements.
• The attack on Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s home town, was widely discussed on popular pro-war Telegram channels, many of which have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. The deaths of the children were barely mentioned and, when they accepted a strike had taken place, the bloggers blamed Ukrainian civilians themselves.
• The propaganda channel “War on Fakes” (repeatedly endorsed by the Russian authorities), went so far as to claim that there had been no strike on the playground and called it a “provocation” intended to disrupt ceasefire talks. 
• Others accepted the strike had occurred but said Russia bore no responsibility for the civilian deaths. “I’m sincerely sorry that civilians were killed. But this is collateral damage, caused by their own carelessness,” wrote Yury Podolyaka (3.1 million followers), a Ukrainian pro-Russian blogger who has lived in Russia since 2014 and raises funds for the Russian army. The “Alex Parker Returns” channel (246,000 followers) published a video after the strike in which a Ukrainian soldier tried to give first aid to children, with the caption: “Where in the playground did the boys in pants and full army rucksacks come from? There wasn’t a military facility nearby? Walking around in helmets and flak jackets near playgrounds.” The Zapiski Veterana channel (339,000 followers) wrote that “if there are civilian casualties, these are collateral damage and were not targeted.”

Why the world should care:

In the fourth year of the war, Russian propaganda has abandoned any hint of decency and is even willing to justify the murder of children. Judging by the reactions of subscribers to pro-war Telegram channels, there are many in Russia that are right behind them.