• Home
  • National
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Inside Stories
  • Videos
  • Opinion
    • MyMPN Blogs
  • Cartoons
  • Citizen Activist
  • Donate
  • App
  • MintCast
  • About Us
  • Language
    • 中文
    • русский
    • Español
  • National News
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Elections
  • Civil Liberties
  • Environment
  • Health & Lifestyle
  • Media & Culture
  • MyMPN Announcements

The Mainstream Media Is Aiding Ethnic Cleansing In Ukraine

March 9, 2015 by Andrey Panevin Follow @AndreyPanevin @AndreyPanevin

In this Sunday, March 1, 2015, file photo an elderly woman walks across a destroyed bridge, which has collapsed over the road to the airport, the scene of heavy fighting, in Donetsk, Ukraine. Is the media ignoring or even condoning ethnic cleansing by Ukrainian forces?  (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

In this Sunday, March 1, 2015, file photo an elderly woman walks across a destroyed bridge, which has collapsed over the road to the airport, the scene of heavy fighting, in Donetsk, Ukraine. Is the mainstream media ignoring or even condoning ethnic cleansing by Ukraine and its forces? (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)

The humanitarian catastrophe in Donbass (Novorossia) is one that qualifies under the definition of ethnic cleansing. The ‘mass expulsion or killing of members of one ethnic or religious group in an area by those of another’ is currently underway in the former eastern Ukrainian region. Thousands of civilians have been killed and up to 2 million have fled their homes to find refuge in Russia.

The Ukrainian army which is currently composed of soldiers who are mainly from the western regions of Ukraine has inflicted death and destruction on a grand scale in the eastern regions. The president of Ukraine, Poroshenko, has repeatedly proclaimed that the country will only have one official language and one official culture. This ultra-nationalist standpoint is a blatant appeal to the fascist politicians and military figures who keep Poroshenko in an uneasy seat of power.

The proclamation is what originally brought those in the east out into the streets. The people of these regions felt their Russian culture and language was under direct attack. The Donbass people protested for the right to a vote on federalization and protecting their culture. This was rejected by Kiev and then the rejection was reinforced by military bombardment.

The mainstream media has by and large avoided this aspect of the crisis in favor of wild misinformation with regard to a ‘Russian invasion.’ What is most disturbing about this is the echoing by the mainstream of what Ukraine has dubbed an anti-terrorist operation or ATO. Donbass is a region of 5-6 million people and the entire region falls under Poroshenko’s anti-terrorist operation ‘zone.’ What has in effect taken place is the labeling of millions of civilians as terrorists. This is a concept familiar to many western-backed military initiatives such as the war on ‘terror’ in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The protests in the largely Russian speaking regions of the east and their eventual violent repression by Kiev led to an armed uprising and the establishment of self defence forces. The movement is largely made up of the local population and has its ranks bolstered by Cossack forces and volunteers from Russia. The mainstream media and Ukrainian authorities have on the other hand pushed the unsubstantiated claims of the Russian army being the driving force behind the uprising.

This idea is further distorted by the media labeling these self defence forces as ‘Putin’s thugs’ or ‘Putin’s bandits.’ It is no wonder then, why the Ukrainian army has inflicted such high casualty rates on the civilian population. They are, in the eyes of the west and at home, ridding their country of what Ukrainian Prime minister Yatsenyuk calls “subhumans.”

Screenshot from Ukrainian embassy website. Yatsenyuk makes his case for ethnic cleansing in the east.

Screenshot from Ukrainian embassy website. Yatsenyuk makes his case for ethnic cleansing in the east.

This is a precedent that was initiated in Serbia when its population faced mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing which was backed by NATO and the west. The argument for intervention and the resulting horror were largely unsubstantiated claims of ethnic cleansing carried out by the Serbian army. The mainstream media obliged this narrative by almost never seeking the Serbian side of the story, let alone exploring the impact on civilians until years later.

Similarly, during the Georgian attack on South Ossetia in 2008, news outlets such as the BBC called it an assault by Georgia on “pro-Moscow rebels.” This blatant misinformation disregarded the fact that South Ossetian civilians bore the brunt of the Georgian attack and the ‘rebels,’ much like in Donbass, were those who sought to defend themselves. Also ignored was the clear intention of Georgia to stage this attack.

More disturbing still, was the absolute whitewashing of what the Georgian military named ‘Operation Clear Field’ which, much like Yatsenyuk’s call to ‘clean the land’ of Donbass, was aimed at ethnic cleansing. The result of Georgia’s aggression was approximately 2000 dead in South Ossetia, and the destruction of civilian homes on a large scale. Russia’s subsequent defence of the people of South Ossetia was lambasted, in what are now all too familiar terms, as ‘Russian aggression.’

The media whitewashing of Ukrainian atrocities in Donbass and the labeling of millions of civilians as ‘rebels’ and ‘terrorists’ are the disturbing patterns of a press controlled by a rampant western, military-industrial complex. The people of these eastern regions have been left without a global voice, the democratic ideals so widely talked of in the west have been denied to them.

An elderly couple stand in front of their badly damaged house in Debaltseve, Ukraine, Monday, March 9, 2015. More than 6,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict almost a year ago that has led to a "merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure," according to the U.N. human rights office. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

An elderly couple stand in front of their badly damaged house in Debaltseve, Ukraine, Monday, March 9, 2015. More than 6,000 people have died in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict almost a year ago that has led to a “merciless devastation of civilian lives and infrastructure,” according to the U.N. human rights office. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

The mainstream media has been so effective in its misinformation that every aspect of this crisis has been turned upside down for the Donbass people. They are defended by people who have given up their former lives only to be called terrorists. They are represented by journalists who reject the western narrative only to be called propagandists. They receive humanitarian aid and political support from Russia who in turn is called the aggressor.

In order for the truth to find a larger audience, the mainstream media must be avoided and this avoidance needs to be promoted with every available tool from social media to citizen journalism. Reports by independent journalists and the many experienced Russian journalists working in Donbass need to reach a wide readership for an balanced examination of the disaster in Ukraine.

Recommended independent sites:

http://slavyangrad.org/

http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/

http://en.eurasianunion.ch/

http://www.ian56.blogspot.com.au/

http://www.zerohedge.com/

https://mohsenabdelmoumen.wordpress.com/

http://thetruthspeaker.co/

http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com.au/

https://www.mintpressnews.com/

http://journal-neo.org/

http://www.globalresearch.ca/

 

Crossposted from The Barricade.

Content posted to MyMPN open blogs is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to MintPress News.

About The Author
Andrey Panevin
Andrey Panevin
Andrey Panevin is an independent writer and analyst interested in geopolitics, media bias and the environment. He is currently in his final year of a History and Literature degree at the University of Tasmania. His work can be found at his blog, The Barricade.

More articles by Andrey Panevin

Filed Under: Foreign Affairs, Media & Culture Tagged With: ethnic cleansing, mainstream media, NATO, Russia, Ukraine

About MyMPN

MyMPN is MintPress News' community site. Anyone can participate by writing a diary and commenting on others' diaries.

Content posted to MyMPN is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to MintPress News.

MyMPN will cease publishing on January 15, 2017. Thank you for your support of our work.

  • More about MyMPN
  • Report site problems and bugs
  • MyMPN Comment Moderation

Follow Mintpress

RSSTwitterFacebookGooglePlus

Our Latest Posts

In The Age Of Trump, Peaceful Revolt Is Our Only Option

By Kevin Patrick Kelly January 11, 2017

Hafizah Geter Gives Moving Poetic ‘Testimony’ At Medgar Evers College

By José Negroni January 10, 2017

Gonzo Journalism Rejects The Myth Of The Neutral Media

By Dr. Milena Rampoldi January 9, 2017

Aleppo: How The US Manipulates Humanitarianism For Imperialism

By Steven Chovanec January 6, 2017

Why One ‘Remain’ Voter Now Supports A Hard Brexit

By Tara Lighten Msiska January 5, 2017

Hawaiian Kingdom, American Empire: An Interview With Professor Keanu Sai

By Dennis Riches January 4, 2017

War Against Rape In Karachi: Advocating For A Rape Free Society

By Dr. Milena Rampoldi December 30, 2016

What’s In A Name? From ‘Al-Qaeda’ To The ‘Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia’

By Nu’man Abd al-Wahid December 29, 2016

Popular Tags

activism Africa American imperialism Barack Obama Canada capitalism Climate change democracy Democratic Party Donald Trump Egypt election 2016 energy fracking history Human Rights inequality Iraq ISIS Islam Islamic State Israel journalism MENA Middle East mining nuclear oil Palestine police poverty prison propaganda racism Republican Party Russia Saudi Arabia Syria terrorism Texas United Kingdom United Nations Wall Street War water

Sign up for our Daily Newsletter

Copyright © 2021 Mint Press, LLC