As we know, the war in Ukraine is not just raging on the front lines. She is also present behind the scenes. So Russians and Ukrainians are waging a fierce war of information. The two nations accuse each other of trying to influence international opinion.
A woman perfectly symbolizes this struggle: Marianna Vishegirskaya. This Ukrainian influencer had made the headlines of the international media following being injured in the bombing of the Mariupol maternity hospital. In a photo, the young pregnant woman was seen emerging from the rubble of the maternity ward with a bloody stomach. The image quickly became a symbol of the horror experienced by civilians in the port city surrounded by Russian armed forces.
News agencies announced a few days following the bombing that she had given birth to her baby. Since then, we had not spoken of the young woman. But she has suddenly reappeared… on pro-Russian media. In an interview titled “Interview with a Girl from the Mariupol Maternity Hospital: The Truth About the Army, the Explosion, and Associated Press Reporters.” It was broadcast by Denis Seleznev, a Russian blogger, and filmed by Kristina Melnikova on YouTube.
“A staging for Russia”
After these horrors, Russia gave its version of the AP pictures. According to the Kremlin, it was a “staging” of “Ukrainian nationalists”. In a press kit, Russia also assured that the deceased woman had been hired to play several pregnant women and stir up emotion on the international scene. Version totally denied by the Associated Press with certain material evidence.
For 25 minutes, Marianna Vishegirskaya suggests that this Russian version is the right one. “People said it wasn’t an airstrike and we mightn’t hear it either, so it was confirmation”she said. “People said it was a missile”, she also slips. Which means that she joins the Russian version that believes that the Ukrainians launched a laser-guided missile from a nearby building in which they were hiding.
She also talks regarding when she was photographed: “I was looking at him (the AP photographer) and I saw he had something in his hands and he was filming. I asked him not to film because I was not ready and I did not didn’t want to be seen”, she added. While directly addressing its president, Volodymyr Zelensky: “Please do everything you can in the negotiations to find a compromise. It’s unbearable to see.”
It is obviously difficult to position oneself in relation to this testimony. Because it is impossible to geolocate the Ukrainian. One of the possibilities is that she is one of the 15,000 inhabitants deported from Mariupol to Russia or the separatist regions of Lugansk and Donetsk. But there is no definite indication that she was abducted by Russian forces to speak under duress.
On the other hand, this would not be the first time that Russia has resorted to this kind of propaganda tactic. In 2016, a Syrian had moved the whole world. At the time, he survived a Russian bombardment in the city of Aleppo and appeared happy on Russian channels. Fighting raged between the rebels and Bashar al-Assad’s regime. The latter was supported by Moscow. But his father had denounced these attempts at manipulation.
