Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry criticizes NYT for report from Kursk region
14 July 02:14
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi called it a “stupid decision” on the part of The New York Times to publish a report from the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, during which the journalist was “sometimes” accompanied by fighters from the Chechen special forces unit Akhmat.
“This is not a balanced report and not the ‘other side of the story’. This is simply a permission for Russian propaganda to mislead the audience,” Tikhiy wrote on the evening of July 12 on the social network X, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
At the same time, he retweeted a post by Ostap Yarysh, a former journalist for the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America radio station and now a media adviser to Razom for Ukraine, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that supports Ukraine and Ukrainians. “I don’t even know where to start. “Akhmat is notorious for its war crimes – torture, executions of civilians, looting and participation in filtration operations. In addition, they were actively used by the Kremlin as a propaganda tool. What is this?” – this is how Yarysh commented on the NYT publication.
Nanna Heitman’s article “A Landscape of Death: What’s Left Where Ukraine Invaded Russia” was published in The New York Times on July 12. At the beginning of the article, the journalist writes that she was in the part of the Kursk region that was held by the Ukrainian Armed Forces for several months for six days, and during this time she was “sometimes” accompanied by Akhmat fighters who “fought to regain control of the area and helped evacuate (local residents – Ed.)”
Heitman reports on the multiple destruction and unburied bodies she saw, including civilians, “the circumstances of their deaths are unknown.” The journalist also recounts her conversations with local residents, who are angry with the Russian authorities for the evacuation failures, as well as with Ukraine and its Western allies. One of the interlocutors of the NYT correspondent voices the narrative of Russian propaganda that one of the reasons for the war was allegedly NATO expansion.
The article states that Russian officials and media hold Ukraine responsible for civilian deaths and accuse the Ukrainian armed forces of brutalizing the local population, but “rarely provide evidence,” Heitman notes. She also recounts the Ukrainian army’s statement that its soldiers fully complied with international law in the Kursk region and helped civilians, including trying to rescue victims of Russian bombing in the town of Sudzha.
“People I spoke to who were in Sudzha during the occupation generally spoke of respectful treatment by the Ukrainian military in the city, including medical and other assistance,” Heitman writes.
The journalist of the American publication refers to an audio message in which the commander of the Chechen special forces, Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, confirms to her the fact of severe poisoning of Akhmat fighters who crawled through a gas pipe during the fighting in Suzha. According to him, one of the Chechen fighters died there, while the others “underwent extensive treatment.” “Two were discharged from the service after they developed what doctors described as cancerous tumors,” Heitman reports.
At the end of the article, she notes: “While I was preparing the report, the Akhmat fighters were recalled to repel another potential Ukrainian offensive. Since then, Russia has launched another bloody cross-border attack targeting Ukraine’s Sumy region.”
