Deep Dive: Kids of Mariupol Catacombs (Azovstal)
By Na'omi AllenMrs Allen is a political science research assistant and this is her personal WIP blog.
She studies political phenomena through the lens of Realpolitik and Conservative Liberalism.
The Ukrainian government and their taking heads are trying to push Western panic/sympathy buttons, with desperate pleas to save the children of Azovstal.
“It’s a war — everything they do and say publicly is designed to help them win the war. Every public statement is an information operation, every interview, every Zelensky appearance broadcast is an information operation.”
Woke up to a video of a Mariupol defender begging the world to get them and civilians out, because they are outnumbered and have days, if not hours left to live. There are more than 500 wounded soldiers and over 1000 civilians sheltering there at Azovstal pic.twitter.com/oFHrooapEr
— Anastasiia Lapatina (@lapatina_) April 20, 2022
In their latest call-to-action, Ukraine’s Stratcom Centre released a heart-wrenching video featuring “Kids of Mariupol Catacombs” who haven’t seen the light of day for three months.
Curiously… one of the men (at around the 23rd second mark, below) shown in an earlier version of “Kids of Mariupol Catacombs”, happens to be an actor recently used in a revanchist propaganda piece distributed on Ukrainian social media.
Despite these appeals, President Zelenskyy has thus far rejected safe-passage offers from Russia, and the grown ups of Azovstal have failed to take advantage of several cease-fires issued by the Russian Federation, instead choosing to use their own children as human shields.
To justify rejecting Russia’s safe-passage offers, Ukrainian officials keep telling lies about the 2014 Battle for Ilovaisk…
This is a lie. The DPR and LPR did not massacre "disarmed" UAF. They ambushed *armed* Nazi battalions who had been shelling innocent people for 3 weeks in Ilovaisk. https://t.co/1ldkzuXe8C
— Na'omi Allen (@girly_GRRRL) April 16, 2022
… and their Social Media BLOB-Mob has revived tall tales about people being sent to concentration camps in Russia.
The Red Cross is being smeared. I'm guessing, because their neutral reports aren't jiving with what we've heard from Kyiv or Western media… especially about humanitarian corridors out of Mariupol. https://t.co/pMmdrPNuE5
— Na'omi Allen (@girly_GRRRL) March 25, 2022
But if these UPA militants won’t use safe-passages offered by Russia, what are they really expecting from us? One social media campaign, launched by someone who claims to be in contact with “the Boys”, is calling for a third-party coastline rescue… to save the children from “the Orcs”. Yet another half-brained idea that would drag NATO into the mix (which would mean WW3).
