This week, Russian media actively and systematically distributed two videos. In one of them, figures in camouflage, presented as Ukrainian soldiers, cut lard on a Koran, presented as a trophy captured from the Kadyrovites. In the other video, they burn several copies of the Koran, accompanied by dirty blasphemy. In principle, the way these videos were distributed and presented made it clear whose work they were. This was done for the Muslim audience, either those who already supported Ukraine or those who were unsure and leaning toward supporting Ukraine, as if to say, look how those you support treat your religion and your Holy Scriptures.
Of course, Russia’s chief «defender of Islam,» Ramzan Kadyrov, promptly fulfilled his role by promising to find and punish those responsible. However, we fear that in this case it will be difficult for him to do so, because his colleagues in the security forces will tell him that those who did it were doing their duty. So there is a great risk that they will find some Ukrainian POWs to scapegoat and force them to confess.
Ukrainian commentators analyzed these videos and laughed at them as another unprofessional and caricatured provocation. In particular, it was pointed out that these wretched disinformers use words that are not used in either Ukrainian or Russian, such as «kostor» instead of «bagattya» or «koster,» tie ribbons on their legs as Russian soldiers have been doing since the first Chechen war, while Ukrainian soldiers use different identification markings in different places, and so on. Overall, the video looks like a very crudely staged performance, especially when compared to numerous videos from combat zones, which are radically different in atmosphere, people’s behavior, etc.
Finally, the Communications Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine issued an official statement saying that this video is a Russian provocation. «We officially emphasize once again that such acts are impossible in the Ukrainian Armed Forces by default, as our troops defend Ukraine and fight against occupiers of different nationalities and religious beliefs. They are all heroes for our people, and their rights, positions and beliefs are protected as a matter of course,» the statement reads, accompanied by a brief statement in the Chechen language on the Telegram channel.
To sum up, Russian provocateurs have once again desecrated the scrolls of the Koran in order to drive a wedge between their opponents. Once again, because it has already been reliably established that they were also behind the recent series of Koran burnings in Sweden, aimed at preventing the country from joining NATO.