Pregnant woman hit in hospital strike features in Russian video
A PREGNANT woman photographed bloodied and dazed after a Russian air raid on a Ukrainian hospital has been featured by a pro-Russia social media channel in a propaganda interview intended to support the Kremlin’s line on the bombing.
An interview with Marianna Vishemirskaya, who was injured in the attack on the hospital in Mariupol, on the southern coast, appeared on “Barbie at War”, a pro-Russian YouTube channel focused on events around the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
It was unclear where the interview with Ms Vishemirskaya had taken place, or how it had been instigated.
Ukrainian activists have said that the Russian army is forcing refugees from Mariupol to relocate to Russia or Russia-backed rebel regions and that Ms Vishemirskaya was likely to be in rebelheld Donetsk.
Millions of people around the world viewed the photograph of Ms Vishemirskaya, after the attack on the maternity hospital that killed four people on March 9, positioning her at the centre of a propaganda storm.
Despite the proof of war crimes, Russia said that the attack had been the result of a laser-guided missile at a nearby building where Ukrainian special forces had been hiding.
In her video interview, Ms Vishemirskaya raised the prospect that Russia’s version of events was correct.
“People said that it wasn’t an air strike and we couldn’t hear it either so this was confirmation,” she said. “People said it was a missile.”
In the 25-minute-long video, filmed by two pro-Russia journalists, Ms Vishemirskaya was filmed in a drab room at an undisclosed location.
She sat on the sofa throughout the 25 minute-long video, picking her fingers and looking distraught.
Russia has previously used videos of survivors of their bombing targets previously as propaganda instruments.
In 2016, a four-year-old boy was photographed dusty and stunned after being pulled from the ruins of Aleppo in Syria. A few months later, footage of him smiling and looking happy with his family appeared on Russian and Syrian state television.
In the video, Ms Vishemirskaya appeared to fight back tears as she criticised the AP journalist who photographed her running down the stairs of the maternity hospital, an image that shocked the world.