Blogger Reveals How She Was Used to Create Fake About ‘Russian Air Strike’ on Mariupol Hospital

© AP Photo / Mstyslav Chernov

Ilya TsukanovAll materialsWrite to the author

Photos snapped by an Associated Press photographer of a pregnant woman at a demolished Mariupol hospital which Western media claimed had been “bombed by Russian forces” spread like wildfire, with US and European officials and media characterizing the incident as evidence of Russian “war crimes”. The Russian MoD dismissed the allegations.

Marianna Vyshemirskaya, a Mariupol beauty blogger who has been turned into a symbol by Western media to shore up claims that the Russian military deliberately bombed one of the city’s maternity hospitals on 9 March, has come forward to explain what really took place.

In a series of story posts on her Instagram page, Vyshemirskaya, whose name was erroneously reported as “Vyshegirskaya” in many Western reports, stressed that the hospital was not struck in an air strike, but apparently shelled by artillery.

Vyshemirskaya also explained that immediately after the shelling, photos of her and other women were taken without their permission by an Associated Press reporter wearing military fatigues and a helmet.

“I spent probably 30 minutes near the maternity hospital. This was where I was photographed. I was the last one to be photographed. When I saw the Associated Press reporter taking pictures I asked him to stop because I didn’t want or need this. He answered ‘Yes, yes, okay’, but after I and a policeman who agreed to accompany me to the second floor of the building to get my things came back down he again started snapping us”, the woman said.

According to Vyshemirskaya, even Ukrainian law enforcement told the reporter not to shoot, with the photo correspondent ignoring them at first, before finally leaving after being warned a second time.

“I did not give my permission for my photos to be taken and published. They published them by their own initiative”, Vyshemirskaya stressed.

The woman said that two days after the incident, Associated Press reporters came back and asked her for an interview. “I replied that I am apolitical and did not want to give any interview. They said ‘We are also apolitical, but we’ve published your photos on the Internet’”, she recalled.

That’s when the slew of fakes and information attacks began, she said. “Because the situation that developed, which they plopped me into –because I never agreed to have my photos published, I was forced to comment, since my situation was considered a fake, that there was nobody in the maternity hospital. I said there were women in labor and pregnant women in the hospital…They also asked me if there was an air raid. I replied that no one heard an air raid. Explosions took place but there were no noises before or after them [to indicate aircraft]. This information didn’t seem to be to their liking. They cut it out”, she said.

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2022 Hiram's 1555 Blog