На русском языке:
Кремлевская и белорусская пропаганда пишет, что Роман Протасевич воевал на Донбассе. Объясняем, почему это ложь
На беларускай мове:
Крамлёўская і беларуская прапаганда піша, што Раман Пратасевіч ваяваў на Данбасе. Тлумачым, чаму гэта хлусня
The Kremlin and Belarusian propaganda have been spreading fakes for several days on the fact that Raman Pratasevich fought in the Donbass. The editors of motolko.help tell why this is a lie and who spreads it.
According to journalist Serge Kharytonau, one of the primary sources of this disinformation in the English-speaking space was the website foiaresearch.net.
In its articles, the anonymous site calls Raman «neo-Nazi-affine Western-backed regime change activist«.
Propaganda published his photo in military uniform, said that he fought in Donbass as part of the Azov battalion, and also replicated photos from the anarchist march, where Raman was seen. But for some reason the fact that in the photo of 2017 Raman as a journalist filmed the action of anarchists, and didn’t participate in some non-existent «neo-Nazi organization Black Block», which is described in his article by foiaresearch.net. However, it got to the point that their information began to refer to the Kremlin support groups in Europe and small media.
After looking into it, Kharytonau found out that the "authoritative" source FoiaResearch is a portal that is associated with the propagandists of the Kremlin.
The site tipped its hands in its Twitter account: the first tweets are reposts from accounts that are associated with RT and Sputnik. Namely: The Grayzone (created in 2015 by RT and Sputnik contributor Max Blumental), Mint Press News (promotes RT and Sputnik texts in the West) and Morgan Artyukhina (Sputnik contributor).
Why do we say it's a lie?
First, it has been said many times that Raman didn’t fight in Donbass, but worked as a war correspondent. But talking is one thing, and facts are another.
Immediately after Tertel’s statement that Pratasevich was allegedly a «mercenary fighter» in the Azov battalion, the battalion’s founder Andrei Biletsky said that the journalist didn’t participate in the fighting, but was present there as a reporter. «Raman really together with Azov and other military units fought against the occupation of Ukraine. But his weapon as a journalist was not a machine gun, but a word»,– Andrei Biletsky wrote.
Even more convincing evidence was published by Ukrainian journalist Denis Kazansky. In his post, he referred to the plot of the Ukrainian Internet TV channel Gromadske, which was released in March 2015. The video shows the fighting in Shyrokino, at 4:40 in the picture appears Raman Pratasevich. He was slightly injured and was being treated. It is clearly seen that unlike the fighters of Azov, Raman was in civilian clothes.
