The Rybar Telegram channel close to the Russian Ministry of Defense admitted that the Russian army attacked the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra in the capital of Ukraine. The channel’s authors accused other bloggers on Z of contradiction and “ringing their heads” over posts about this attack.
This post was one of the first to draw attention to Rebar’s post Astra. Those in charge of the channel, which is close to the Ministry of Defense, do not directly describe the strike as Russian, but rather justify it.
The Rybar telegram channel was created by a former employee of the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense Mikhail Zvenchuk and his colleague Denis Shchukin. The Bell wrote that the founder of Wagner PMC, Evgeny Prigozhin, was involved in financing the Telegram channel.
Now the Telegram channel “Rybar” has more than 1.5 million subscribers.
“The desire to enthusiastically make excuses for such things after what has happened over four years is irrational and inexplicable,” Rebar writes. According to the channel’s authors, other pro-war Russian bloggers, on the one hand, “describe the leadership as pity for the enemy and unwillingness to really fight,” and also call for bombing everything and “burning Kiev in nuclear ash.”
“But as soon as you follow the appeals even one iota and hit the roof of the Kiev Lavra (even without casualties), part of the blogosphere itself races to tell you that all this is generally fake and a conspiracy. And the authors of the post add without irony: “Well, we’re not like that!”
On June 15, Russia launched a large-scale attack on Kyiv. As a result of the attack, the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a historical and architectural monument included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, caught fire.
The Lavra leadership stated that Russia carried out two targeted drone strikes on the Lavra. UNESCO reported that the impact caused severe damage to the Assumption Cathedral.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that the Lavra building complex was subjected to missile strikes from the US Patriot air defense system. One of the reasons for the incorrect operation of air defense in the Russian administration is the supply of Western missiles “with an expiration date” to Kiev.