Steve Webster

I’m not there and I’m not reporting from the scene. But since last night I’ve been reading pretty much everything I could find in Ukrainian and Russian, watching the videos and talking to few military friends. It was now established, the people held in that building were not civilians grabbed off the streets for forced mobilization. They were military personnel who had deserted and agreed to return to service rather than face prison for desertion. Now, a few things about the people outside the building really caught my attention. First, the woman presenting herself as an ambulance worker. It was quickly established by Ukrainian journalists that she doesn’t work for an ambulance service and the private company she claimed to represent doesn’t appear to exist. She’s is the source of the stories about “torture chambers” and a “broken spine”. Then there’s the young guy who was brought out of the building looking absolutely horrifying. Except that a few minutes earlier, you can see him climbing the fence, filming himself, screaming insults at military personnel, throwing things at them. Apparently he then fell from the fence into the compound and was taken inside. On one of the videos Budanov asks him: “What are you doing here? How did you end up here?” “I came here with the guys, he says. And then there are those one or two voices you can hear in almost every video. Every time someone from the military comes out and tries to calm things down and answer questions, these same voices start shouting insults and trying hard to turn it into a confrontation, screaming phrases like « you torture people » etc. Look, mobilization is one of the most painful and controversial issues in Ukraine during this war. Could Ukraine fight a war of this scale with volunteers alone? I genuinely don’t know. I’m not an expert and won’t pretend I have arguments about this. But that’s not what this particular episode is about. Watching it spread everywhere, especially through accounts that constantly push anti-Ukrainian narratives, I wanted to understand what happened. And the more I look, the more it seems someone found out where deserters were being held and decided to put on a show. Quickly, cheaply, with a few very active badly prepared characters and plenty of cameras. Can I prove it was organized? No. But the details are strange enough to question the story being sold on X. And while this whole episode is being shared and discussed everywhere… 29 people are reported dead after yesterday’s Russian bombing of Komyshuvakha. Another 48 are missing. 29 dead. 48 missing. And somehow this is barely a story. Of course we should talk about mobilization. Of course we should investigate abuses by Ukrainian military authorities. Nobody gets a free pass because there’s a war. But look at the difference.A few videos, some unverified accusations against Ukrainian soldiers, and suddenly everyone is outraged. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone wants answers. Russia bombs Ukrainians. People are killed. Others are missing under the rubble. And where is that same outrage? That same obsession with every detail? Apparently, the possibility of a Ukrainian soldier being a criminal is more interesting than the certainty of Russia killing Ukrainians.