Russia Ukraine war, page-49812

Response by Russia and its supporters

Initially, Russian state media and pro-Russian telegram channels[38][39] claimed successful Russian airstrikes on a military transport target in Kramatorsk. After it became clear that the missiles had killed civilians, however, earlier reports were redacted, the Russian government denied responsibility for the attack, and the Russian Ministry of Defence characterized it as a Ukrainian hoax.[38][40] The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed that the missiles were launched by Ukrainian forces from the city of Dobropillia, southwest of Kramatorsk.[41][16]

Russian media also said that the serial number of the missile was in the same range as one used by Ukrainian forces. Serial numbers cannot be used to prove which side fired the missile, however, since all Tochka-U's were manufactured at a single site in Russia and distributed from there across the Soviet Union. As a result, there was, for example, a close serial number match between a Tochka-U used by Russia in Syria and one used by Ukraine in Snizhne.[42][43][44] Moreover, both Russia and Ukraine have made extensive use of munitions captured from the other side.[45][46]

A fake video clip with a mock BBC logo, attributing blame to the Ukrainian forces, circulated through pro-Russian telegram channels since 10 April. The video was also aired on Russian state television. The BBC has not produced any such video.[47][48]

Assessment of the Russian response

The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that their forces no longer use Tochka-U missiles. However, Amnesty International, the investigative journalists of the Conflict Intelligence Team, and a number of military experts had already reported the use of Tochkas by Russian forces in multiple parts of Ukraine prior to the strike on Kramatorsk.[49] Moreover, investigators from the open-source Belarusian Hajun Project had published videos of several Russian trucks with Tochka missiles heading from Belarus to Ukraine with 'V' markings on 5 March and 30 March.[50] The Institute for the Study of War assessed that the Russian 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, which is active in the Donbas area, is equipped with Tochka-U missiles.[51] Russian news reports and social media footage showed the 47th Missile Brigade, part of Russia's 8th Combined Arms Army, displaying Tochka-U missiles at public events in 2021, including at the Victory Day parade in Krasnodar.[52]

On 14 April, Bellingcat stated that open source evidence remained insufficient to establish the direction from which the missile had been fired.[26]

On 18 April, PolitiFact assessed the possibility of the incident being a false flag, concluding that "there's no credible evidence that Ukraine was behind the April 8 attack at the Kramatorsk train station."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kramatorsk_railway_station_attack