https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/427b43e2-9591-49f1-9914-694240f6d3ce On 24 August 2024, the Russian state broadcaster NTV published an extensive report entitled ‘The Junta’s Thirteen Friends’, which smeared Russian journalists and artists who had supported Ukraine during the annexation of Crimea and Russia’s ‘secret’ military operation in the Donbas. The report focuses on whitewashing Ukraine’s alleged war crimes in the Donbas, completely ignoring the fact that the Russian invasion itself began with the murders of civilians (Dmytro Chernyavskiy, Volodymyr Rybak), clergymen and Donetsk businessmen, who were tortured in the “Izolatsia” prison and forced to hand over their companies and property to the thugs forming the core of Girkin’s group. The propaganda piece “Thirteen Friends of the Junta” was published less than a month after the Russian army shot down the Malaysian civilian aircraft MH17, a war crime which Russia has not admitted to to this day despite overwhelming evidence. And it was precisely the Russians who spoke to their fellow citizens about these events who were labelled “traitors” and “friends of the junta” in NTV’s highly manipulated report. The title itself is also a gross manipulation, because what the Russian media call the “armed coup in Kyiv” was in fact an agreement officially signed in the presidential palace by Ukrainian President Yanukovych with representatives of the opposition, in the presence of ambassadors from EU countries, the US… and Russia, as witnesses to the process. It was only after President Yanukovych had been evacuated that the Russian narrative suddenly changed, and the signing of the agreement began to be referred to as an “armed coup”. Thu, 14 May 2026 09:04:26 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://video.echelon.pl https://video.echelon.pl/client/assets/images/icons/icon-512x512.png https://video.echelon.pl/videos/watch/427b43e2-9591-49f1-9914-694240f6d3ce All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://video.echelon.pl/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.