“The First Casualty of War Is the Truth”. What Is Really Happening in Donbass

A Conversation with Christelle Neant of Donbass Insider on the War in Ukraine By Christelle Néant and Dr. Leon Tressell Global Research,

They say that the first casualty of war is the truth. Nevermore so was this the case in the current war in Ukraine. The mainstream media in the West have become stenographers for the new Cold War being pursued by American imperialism. They refuse to critically examine the massive supplies of weapons by the West to Ukraine and refuse to acknowledge the many war crimes being committed by the Ukrainian armed forces on a daily basis. If you want to find out what is really going on in the war zone that is Eastern Ukraine then you have to talk to journalists with integrity who are actually based in the Donbass. I have spoken with French journalist Christelle Neant who is co-founder of Donbass Insider and is based in Donetsk. She gives her views on many of the key issues regarding the current conflict in Ukraine. Dr. Leon Tressell: Can you explain your motives in establishing Donbass insider? How long have you been covering the war in the Donbass? Christelle Neant: I cover the Donbass war for six years. Donbass Insider was established to offer an independent platform to publish articles about the situation in the Donbass, in Ukraine, in Russia, and in some related countries like Syria, or Belarus. Here several journalists, authors, and volunteers, can publish their reports, articles or researches. The motives were to show the facts, that mainstream media hide about the Donbass war, for people in the West to better understand what is the real situation, and the origins of it.

Copyright Christelle Neant, with permission to use the photo

DLT: I recently communicated with Amnesty International regarding the abduction of Mikhail & Aleksander Kononovich who are leading members of the outlawed Leninist Communist Youth Union by the Ukrainian security services. In the ensuing email exchange, the representatives of Amnesty International stridently condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the many ‘war crimes’ it is alleged to have committed in Ukraine. Let me be clear I condemn attacks on civilians by military units of Russia or Ukraine. Having said this, there was no acknowledgement by the Amnesty representative of the war crimes committed by successive Ukrainian governments who are responsible for the artillery shelling of civilian settlements in Donetsk and Lugansk over the last 8 years. This is an issue that the Western media and political elites refuse to acknowledge, instead they hysterically denounce Russian aggression in Ukraine since late February of this year. In recent weeks the Ukrainian army has stepped up its shelling of Donetsk, often using Western supplied weaponry, leading to many civilian deaths. Why do you think that Ukraine is stepping up its shelling of civilians in Donetsk? Can you tell us about your own first hand experience of Ukrainian shelling of civilians in the Donbass?CN: I think Ukraine is stepping up its shelling of civilians in Donetsk, but also in Gorlovka, Yasinovataya, and Stakhanov (in LPR) for several reasons:1) They feel they are losing ground, and they understand the front will move, preventing them to continue such terror shelling. And they have a mentality of « If we cannot retake it, then nobody will have it ». So they shell while they still can to destroy what they cannot reconquer.2) They know Russia will pay to rebuild infrastructures and housings destroyed during the war, so the more they destroy, the more the financial burden will be heavy for Russia.3) They want to terrorise the population, to push them to demand authorities to take back units which are on other parts of the front, in order to protect them from shellings. The aim is to divert units which are currently more on the north, in Severodonetsk and near Slavyansk, thus slowing the advance of Russian army, and DPR-LPR militias.