As always in commenting on events in Ukraine I have to flag up at the start that Russia was wrong to invade since in the current febrile atmosphere not doing so sees one branded a Putin apologist. And that means that you are questioned if you dare to challenge what is almost certainly fake news and, on this conflict, in Briitain, the Daily Mail is the biggest villain on that score.
The almost 1,000 Russian soldiers killed on one day is not a fact as the Mail suggests in a gory headline, but merely a claim made by the Ukraine Ministry of Truth. It claimed 850 kills and the Mail rounded that number up. But is there any evidence or verification for this claim? No.
As with the ghost of Kiev, sorry Kyiv, about whom the Mail and the whole MSM reported for weeks only for Ukraine to eventually admit that it was a hoax, there was no proof. There were also the industrial scale rapes by Russian soldiers. In the end Ukraine admitted that was a hoax too but not before the Western press pushed the narrative for weeks without bothering to verify the facts. Remember the gold teeth in an Auschwitz style torture chamber fiasco? Again it was made up by Ukraine but the Western media did not question it but just reported it in full.
The second most corrupt regime in Europe, that is to say the Ukrainians want you to believe that a) the Russians ( the most corrupt) are the spawn of all evil and that they are angels and b) that with just another few billion pounds sent from Western Governments who cannot afford it, minus the skim sent to Swiss bank accounts, the war can be won. And our press reprint what Ukraine tells them to print to help push those narratives.
I do not doubt that Russia has done some terrible things. So, by the way, has Ukraine, albeit not on the scale of Russia. But for those few of us who would rather see a negotiated peace, pushing in an unquestioning way what often is shown to be fake news, to fan the flames of war, is not something that should be praised or go unchallenged.