When the photos came out of a heavily pregnant and badly injured Mariana Vishegirskaya, who was evacuated with blood in her face down the stairs from the bombed children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, the Kremlin was quick to act.
According to Russia, Mariana was a paid actress who was not even pregnant, and they claimed that Ukraine had spread fake pictures of her to win sympathy.
The Russian embassy in Britain even went so far as to claim Twitter that Mariana was only “very realistically made up”, which made the criticism hail. They later deleted the post.
– INJURY: Mariana just after the attack on the maternity hospital on March 9. Photo: Mstyslav Chernov / AP / NTB
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For Mariana quickly became a symbol of the suffering of the Ukrainian civilian population in the war.
But now, just two months after the hospital attack, the Kremlin no longer calls the Ukrainian woman a war actress.
Now she is part of Russia’s own propaganda campaign to convince Russian citizens, and the world, that their invasion of Ukraine is justified, writes Vice.
– EVACUATION: A heavily pregnant and injured Mariana is evacuated from the children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol, which was bombed by the Russians on 9 March. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / NTB
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– Lies from the West
– You have not forgotten Mariana from the maternity hospital in Mariupol, right ?, tweeted the official Twitter account of the Russian embassy in Geneva on Thursday morning.
– She has a message for everyone who believes in “kidnapping”, “threats with firearms” and other false stories about Russia, the West and its “free press” want people to believe, they wrote further.
You haven’t forgotten Marianna from the Mariupol maternity hospital, right?
She has a message for everyone who believes in “kidnapping”, “held at gunpoint” and other boogeyman stories about Russia the West and its “free press” want people to believe pic.twitter.com/iopHf6K3e7
— Russian Mission in Geneva (@mission_russian) May 5, 2022
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Attached was a video of Mariana on an open street, which she claims is in Donetsk, where she is interviewed by a woman, who asks her: “Hi Mariana, please tell us if you are being held here in science”.
In the video, Mariana replies: “No, I will not. We moved to Donetsk on our own initiative “, before she adds that Donetsk is her own hometown and that she and the baby are safe.
– People who move to Donetsk and Russia do so on their own initiative. No one is forcing anyone against their will, one can hear Mariana say further.
– BOMB ATTACK: The Russian bomb attack on the maternity hospital in Mariupol on March 9 left major injuries. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / NTB
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The video is probably Russia’s response to Ukraine’s accusations that Russia has forced hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians across the border into Russia and is holding them hostage.
The allegations have been confirmed by several independent media, as well as the human rights organization Human Rights Watch.
There have been circular allegations that Mariana and her newborn daughter must have been among them, something she now denies, we must believe the video from the Russian authorities.
– BIRTH: Mariana with her newborn daughter Veronika, who was born in Mariupol on March 11, just two days after the Russian bombing of the city’s maternity hospital. Photo: Evgeniy Maloletka / AP / NTB
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Russian version of the truth
Since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin has blocked 300 independent media outlets in Russia, and at least 150 journalists have gone into exile.
The video of Mariana is probably another attempt by the authorities to check the truth about the war in their home country.
In Russia, incidents in Ukraine are described literally in reverse by the Western media reports: “Russia should be attacked” and “Russia is not waging war”, says senior adviser Inna Sangadzhieva in the Helsinki Committee to TV 2.
– For Russian authorities, the most important thing about propaganda is to tell a different story about this case. They use Mariana because she has become so famous.
– SKEPTIC: Senior adviser Inna Sangadzhieva of the Helsinki Committee believes the Kremlin is deliberately using Mariana in its propaganda campaign. Photo: Frode Sunde / TV 2
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According to Sangadzhieva, Mariana is being abused in Putin’s propaganda campaign.
– I think Mariana is a victim of war, both around her experience of the military attack in Mariupol, and also as a victim of information war, says the senior researcher and adds:
– No matter what she says, she is being abused by Russian propaganda to continue their version of the truth.
Not the first time
This is not the first time Mariana has appeared in a Russian propaganda video.
Already three weeks after the bombing of Mariupol Hospital, a video was published on the internet in which Mariana claims that there was never any air attack on the maternity hospital, where she herself was admitted.
– Neither I nor others heard any airstrikes, she says in the interview, which was published by the Russian TV channel Kanal 1.
– RUINS: The maternity hospital in Mariupol after the Russian bombing on 9 March. Photo: Ukraine Military / Reuters / NTB
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During the video, the Kremlin-controlled channel further claims that Ukrainian soldiers took food from the evacuated pregnant women.
Foreign media published pictures that frightened the world, and now the heroine is testifying against Ukraine: there was no air attack, the message reads, with a call for Russians to “hear and judge for themselves”.
According to Sangadzhieva, it is not new that Russian state media is lying on social media.
– Ever since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Russian media have talked Ukraine down and presented it as a country and people with many problems. They have served lies on a silver platter simply, she says.
The senior researcher says Putin’s drastic steps to control freedom of expression in Russia indicate that things are not going exactly according to plan.
– They constantly come up with allegations to “paint the rose” regime, but it has the opposite consequence. It just shows that Russia’s leaders have no plan, and take the chance with wild claims, she says.
– Mariana’s role in this is to confirm the history of the Russian authorities. It may be her it is her own story, but it may also be that she has been told what to say.
– Do not bring dirt into “my house”
Mariana is herself a beauty blogger, and has over 104,000 followers Instagram. But since the war, it has been pretty quiet on her social media.
There is almost no trace of her experience at the hospital in Mariupol and from the time afterwards.
In it latest postwhich was published on May 10, she only writes that she will soon resume her blog interest and asks people who write critical comments against her to stop following her.
– Do not bring dirt into “my house”, go in peace. My blog has always been about kindness, beauty and positivity, and that is how it will remain, she concludes.
It is so far unknown whether Mariana volunteered in the video for the Russian embassy.
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