Vladislav Shikhov: Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)

On April 5, journalists asked Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov about reports that a Ukrainian military drone caused an explosion in Donbas that killed a 5-year-old child. The report emerged from social media channels operated by Russian proxies who control eastern Ukraine along the Russian border.

A variety of pro-Moscow media outlets in Russia and Ukraine quickly picked up the story. On April 5, Russia’s Investigative Committee said it was opening a case. That is despite the fact that the incident in question purportedly took place in a foreign country where Russian law enforcement has no authority.



Russia denies any involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine despite overwhelming evidence that it supports separatist rebels and their self-proclaimed republics in the area.

Peskov told reporters:

"I don’t have verified information about the child’s death. However, I see no reason to question the reports that came from the self-proclaimed republics ... It’s certainly hard to imagine someone spreading fake news about the death of a child."

This is misleading: In fact, there are good reasons to question the news from Russia’s proxies in Donbas and Russian state media, since they have an established record of coordinating and fabricating false news, including disinformation that involves children.

First, there is the unsubstantiated case at hand – a 5-year-old allegedly killed by a Ukrainian drone. Although the story gained rapid traction in Russian social and state media, authorities of the rebel-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” (DNR) released no names or personal details of the child or its family.



Initially, some sources reported that the incident happened in Oleksandrivka, a town near the front lines. However, the location later changed to another settlement called Oleksandrivske, and this became the official version given by the DNR authorities, as well as the Russian Investigative Committee.

This time, DNR and Russia’s investigators provided specific information about the incident – a home address in the town of Oleksandrivske, 2nd Dorozhnaya Street, 36. However, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission (OSCE SMM), which observes and records casualty incidents in eastern Ukraine on daily basis, did not report any such incident until April 6.

“On 2 April in Donetsk region (part of Donbas), a child died due to blast trauma and shrapnel wounds in non-government-controlled Oleksandrivske; and a man was injured due to shelling in government-controlled Krasnohorivka,” the OSCE SMM​ report stated.

Yet nothing in the report suggests the child was killed as a result of combat activity.





The choice of Oleksandrivske is significant because that town is approximately 30 kilometers from the front line. This puts it out of range for the type of makeshift attack drones used by both sides in the conflict – i.e., civilian drones modified to drop small explosive munitions or grenades.

Social media chatter from the territory reported that a child had been killed by an explosion, though not from a Ukrainian drone. On the Russian social networking site VK, a user named Valentina Iskritskaya responded to the story in a pro-DNR group chat:

“Yes, it happened yesterday, but not because of a drone. I am from this village. The owner had a mine, and his grandson found it. I do not understand why people are lied to. My condolences.”

Another VK user also said the victim's parents live in a nearby village and said their child was killed by a mine his grandfather had kept in the yard since 2014 or 2015, or early in the war.

In this case, "mine” could refer to a land mine or a mortar shell.