On March 30, 2023, Georgian- (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) and Russian-language (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Facebook accounts, as well as Russian media (Pravda.ru, aif.ru, dnr-news.ru, smotrim.ru, podolyaka.ru) disseminated information about the alleged explosion of NATO’s secret underground bunker. According to the posts spread on the social network, the Russian Air Force attacked the Ukraine-NATO joint command and communication center using a Kinzhal-type hypersonic missile, as a result of which the secret headquarters located at a depth of 120 meters was destroyed. The posts also mention that there were about 300 people in the bunker at the time of the attack, including NATO military advisers and officers, and most of the victims are British and Polish, as well as Americans and employees of private companies who worked in the direction of communication and data transmission. Some of the articles and posts indicated the Greek online outlet “Pronews” as the primary source of information. Selected posts also feature an alleged shot of the explosion.
The claim that the Russian side bombed a secret NATO command center in Ukraine, killing NATO officers and military advisers, is without evidence. The Greek online outlet published the information on March 12, 2023, but since then, neither the official sources of Russia nor NATO member states have confirmed the information about the destruction of a secret bunker. In addition, the photo attached to the posts depicts an explosion that took place in Syria in 2021.
Information about the alleged destruction of a NATO command and communication bunker was disseminated by Russian news agencies based on the Greek online publication “Pronews.” According to an article published on March 12, a Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missile struck a NATO command, control and communications center located 130 meters deep in Ukraine. According to Pronews, more than 300 people were in the bunker, and among the dead were representatives of British, Polish and American private companies that provided communication and data transmission. It should be noted that a few days before the publication of this article, Russia launched a missile attack on Ukraine, although Russian and Ukrainian official sources do not confirm the attack on NATO or Western military personnel.
On the night of March 9, 2023, Russia launched a mass attack on Ukraine in response to the March 2 skirmishes in Bryansk Oblast. According to the Ministry of Defense of Russia, “retaliation” – attacks on military-industrial and energy facilities were carried out with various types of long-range high-precision weapons, including hypersonic missiles of the Kinzhal type.
According to the Ukrainian military command, the country’s air force shot down 34 cruise missiles on March 9. Not to mention, President Zelenskyy stated that the missile attack was carried out on “critical infrastructure and residential buildings.” The attack on NATO or Western military personnel was not mentioned in the statement of the Ministry of Defense of Russia. According to the representative of the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, as a result of the missile attack, the bases of unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed, the railway transportation of foreign weapons was disrupted, and the facilities for the repair of military equipment and the production of ammunition were out of order.
The information about the destruction of NATO’s underground bunker was verified by the American weekly online publication Newsweek. According to their investigation, the Greek Pronews has no evidence of the NATO bunker explosion and, in turn, the website has a practice of publishing sensationalist and misleading articles. Newsweek also notes that the narrative about the NATO “secret bunker” explosion may have come from Russian military bloggers and Kremlin propagandists – on March 10, Yuriy Baranchik, former editor-in-chief of the Kremlin’s propaganda publication Regnum, published a post on Telegram saying that the attack in Ukraine “NATO shadow Headquarters” was destroyed.
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Is the shot depicting the explosion actually from Ukraine?
The shot showing the explosion, which is attached to the posts disseminated on social networks, was actually taken in Syria in 2021. The video, from which the frame was cut, was published on March 7, 2021, by the Facebook page Syria Civil Defense – The WhiteHelmets. A missile strike on an oil loading facility in northern Syria took place in March 2021, killing at least four people and destroying 180 trucks and tankers.
A post on Twitter by BBC journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh on March 30, 2023, stated that reports of a Russian attack on a secret NATO command center were not true, and the footage showed a missile strike on an oil facility in Syria in 2021.
Claims that NATO or US military personnel have been captured or killed in Ukraine are part of Kremlin propaganda aimed at portraying NATO and the United States as war parties. After the emergence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, similar claims were verified by “Myth Detector” a number of times. For more information on the topics, see:
- Conspiracy about the Existence of Hidden NATO Bio-laboratory under the “Azovstal” Factory
- The Timeline and Origin of the Photo Presented as an Evidence of the Capture of a U.S. Admiral
- Where is the Canadian General and Does the Photo of AVIA.PRO Depict his ‘Capture?’
About the Sources
The majority of the Facebook accounts that disseminated the claims about the destruction of the NATO surveillance base regularly publish false and manipulative information. “Myth Detector” has verified disinformation disseminated by the following Facebook users: Ioseb Sirabidze, Fantina.
Facebook user Boris Dudauri-Giorgadze is a supporter of the “Conservative Movement”, who has been spreading false information in the past as well.
Archive links: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8
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