At the beginning of August 2023, a new video was released on the Redacted YouTube channel, which The Ukrainian Review has repeatedly written about. Clayton Morris and his co-host focused on the reporting of their colleague [pro-russian journalist Patrick Lancaster – ed.] from the russian-occupied ukrainian territory. He talked about the NATO equipment that the Russians allegedly captured and are going to use against Ukraine.
“Right now we have a very special report coming to you from the front line. Now we are between the Zaporizhzhya front and the Vugledar front. We are on russian-controlled territory and in fact, this tank behind me is a Ukrainian tank from the Azov Battalion”, – said Lancaster.
Whether this is really so, we discussed with our experts in this article.
Are the MBTs really Ukrainian?
Judging by what the soldier under the call sign “Sava” said, the location of the shooting of this story was in the area marked with a red square. We also drew attention to the fighters’ chevrons – they really belong to the operational-combat tactical formation “Cascades”. However, there was another red chevron, which in the announcements it is stated that these stickers belonged to the fighters of the PMC “Wagner”. However, it is more likely a decorative sticker than a sign that assigns a soldier to a certain military format.
We will remember that at the end of May, 2023, the Russians together with the fighters of the so-called “L/DPR” occupied Mariupol and captured almost 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers from “Azovstal”. One of the units that destroyed the city was “Cascade” – a group from the so-called DPR. Its members first stormed and methodically destroyed Mariupol, and then, working on cameras, brought food packages to the surviving residents and arranged “tours” of propaganda media.
We asked the Ukrainian military columnist of the “Information Resistance” group, journalist Alexander Kovalenko, whether the video shows the tanks that the occupiers are talking about.
“It is true that these are Ukrainian tanks, but there is a slight difference. The tank that is shown from the very beginning of this propaganda plot is the T-64 B1M. But the second tank they demonstrate is the T-64 Bulat BM. During the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, several units of these tanks were captured as trophies. Some of them were destroyed, but they are really Ukrainian tanks,” – he said.
Source: https://www.facebook.com/
Although the video showed only two tanks, its title stated that “Russia is using captured Ukrainian and NATO to attack.” The Russians justified this by the fact that the tanks have plates with inscriptions in Latin alphabet. Of course, we asked our expert about it:
“These tanks were not exported, but as an element of our military-industrial complex, they were offered for export to other countries. The fact is that T-64 tanks at one time were actually sent to other countries for use by their troops. For example, they were exported to the Congo, and in 2013 these tanks were even modernized and repaired. So, they have T-64 in service, but a completely different modification – B1B”.
He also added:
“By the way, Russia was also armed with T-64 tanks, there is nothing surprising in this, because after all, tanks were produced during the Soviet Union and in large quantities. You could find such tanks in Transnistria, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. But they are not in the modification shown, that is, they are not “Bulat” and not B1M – they have basic BV or T-64A type. Therefore, these are tanks that were produced in Ukraine and modernized here as well.
For example, “Bulat” is one of the modern modernization, which is why we tried to export them or presented modernization options for countries that have them. That is why this tablet is in Latin. It was intended to demonstrate this tank in the future at forums or weapons demonstration events”.
He emphasized that this is a Soviet tank that was created at the Morozov Design Bureau and, by the way, it was one of the best Soviet tanks with a fairly serious element of further modernization. It has been made at the Kharkiv enterprise for many years. This is the basis for the long-term development of this tank, laid in the future by Oleksandr Morozov, it does not meet NATO standards even in terms of caliber. It has a 125 caliber gun, while NATO is 120 caliber.
How Russians use captured equipment
According to the Oryx, Ukraine managed to capture about 2,878 enemy equipment items, while Russia only managed to capture about 954. Mr. Kovalenko agreed with this advantage and explained how the Russians use our equipment:
“The use of our technology is indeed sometimes recorded for the purpose of deception. For example, in order to make breakthroughs in the rear of our positions, using exclusively unique samples of our equipment. Most of the equipment is very similar to each other, for example, we have the same T-72 as they do. T-64 is also available in various modifications, “Bulat”, as we can see, they have a trophy, as well as T-80 tanks. We, like them, even have T-90 tanks. We have trophies, because we captured them. But these are all Soviet models, although there are also unique types of weapons. For example, the BTR-4, it was produced only in Ukraine or, for example, “Kozak” or “Varta-Novator” light armored vehicles .
In addition to Ukrainian-made equipment, they also managed to capture several Western-type models of weapons.
“There are also some Western-type models that the Russian invaders managed to capture. Well, for example, it can be some Western-style IFV. Unfortunately, the Russians captured some equipment. Not all can be used. They sometimes try to pass off this equipment as Ukrainian in order to carry out some of their operations to strike the territory of Ukraine, to break through our rear, and so on. That is, imitating Ukrainian troops who are acting.”
US military expert and journalist Chris Sampson also confirmed that the fact of using Ukrainian weapons for provocations exists:
“Yes, many of these propagandists use distortions of attacks to forgive all Russian actions as defense and Ukrainian actions as offense against civilians despite the evidence. The key to seeing that they also verbalize usage of equipment they have heard is coming to Ukraine even if there is no indication of it arriving or being deployed. After hearing about HIMARS, every attack is a HIMARS attack in Russian propaganda. After hearing about Patriot Air Defense, every building hit in Kyiv was blamed on Patriots”.
However, having such trophy equipment, the Russians will not be able to use it for a long time, because they simply will not be able to maintain it. Alexandr Kovalenko explained in more detail:
“The Russians’ particular problem with captured NATO equipment is that, unlike Ukraine, Russia does not have a repair base for restoring this equipment. Even if they captured some unit, which is capable of combat, after some time this unit will need maintenance, repair, replacement of some spare parts. How will they do it? First of all, they do not understand this very well, because the technical staff prepares separately for each technique. This is the first point. And the second, where will they get spare parts? How will they restore it? So, there is another issue here.”
This answer was supplemented by Chris Sampson, who said that captured Ukrainian weapons do not allow Russia to change the course of the war.
“No different than any weapon, it isn’t good to have weapons captured, but it is also not a game changer for the Russians. Ukrainians should destroy certain equipment upon abandoning it, but mostly Ukrainians are getting gear that is already abundantly documented. The optics by Russian propagandists like Patrick Lancaster rely upon not understanding this and the audience is for people who do not understand this”.
Why such propaganda exists
The Redacted YouTube channel used the report of another pro-Russian propagandist, Patrick Lancaster. The purpose of such content is not just to discredit Ukraine, but also to promote certain political views in American society.
We asked Chris Sampson about how the propaganda narrative that Russia is capturing and using NATO equipment, as suggested in the title of the video, works. He answered:
“The “our weapons are going to the bad guys” is an old trope used in American politics and that Russia has exploited well since Syria’s collapse. “Our weapons will be in Al Qaeda hands”, was a frequent excuse to avoid arming groups that were fighting Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Assad regime. Preying upon a reasonable fear is a good method for dissuading choices that help provide defense to people under attack across the globe. This strong effort to inhibit support is common in much of the disinformation used by Russia against the West”.
Patrick Lancaster – is an American YouTuber, influencer, and former US Navy sailor. Lancaster attempts to position himself as an ‘independent crowdfunded journalist’. Lancaster has been widely described as a pro-Kremlin propagandist, and his videos have often been cited by western media, and used by western agencies, due to their inadvertently exposing secret, and compromising Russian military information.
“Unfortunately, indeed, there is such a pro-Russian lobby, but these are mostly Trumpists, and they use precisely the discrediting of Ukraine for their political goals. They want to discredit the politics of Biden, who is helping Ukraine, and this is one of the elements of their influence. In addition, there is a pro-Russian lobby in the Senate and Congress, which also advocates the termination of any aid to Ukraine,” – explained Alexander Kovalenko.
He emphasized that there are fewer such people than others, both Republicans and Democrats, who, on the contrary, advocate for help until victory itself.
“Yes, there is an audience, that’s true, and there’s a corresponding influence, that’s also true. They spread this information among their circle, but it rarely goes beyond it. Well, let’s say it as it is, there is always a consumer for information who has critical thinking, and there is a consumer who does not have critical thinking at all, who likes conspiracy theories. The marginal audience perceives just that. We have low wages, we have unemployment, why? And because Ukraine is at war with Russia, and we are helping them in this war. That is, we need to complete it and deal with our enterprises, create jobs, although more jobs were created under Biden, and even more so than under Trump. But they use such populist elements”.
Added to this answer by Sampson:
“Both disinformation and extremism exploit a positive aspect of human nature: our empathy. By tapping our empathy, tapping our feelings, the propagandist can then seek to direct our emotional reactions to a desired behavior. For instance, if we think that arming Ukraine can cause nuclear war, we would not want nuclear war and we would not arm Ukraine. If we believe that smaller arms, vehicles and various deadly weapons could fall into the hands of known bad actors, we would not want this. But we would especially not want to fund a genocide”.
According to him, disinformation has always been aimed at behavior modification. Using American cutouts like Clayton Morris, Russia and China often exploit their ignorance of locations in the world like Ukraine to authentically act as a witness to manufactured crimes. Russia exploited this method with many Americans to sell a narrative to Americans and outside Ukraine as a “genocide against the people of Donbas”.
“The use of foreign voices to amplify Kremlin objectives is very old. The method allows for the appearance of an authentic witness when the voice is already compromised in favor of the Kremlin. The amplified numbers will be too much for many viewers to examine, verify and they will accept it without question on some level. A lie lives longer than the truth.
Dozens of known western propagandists are complicit in the crimes of the Russian Federation in the seizure of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk and the eventual full-scale invasion. They came to this region for various reasons but are exploited to confuse the western audience and excuse the terrorist aggression of the Russian Federation against the sovereign nation of Ukraine”, – he said.
We found out that there are no NATO weapons in the video, although there were indeed incidents of them being captured by the enemy. According to experts, such incidents will not have a serious impact on the course of the war, because the Russians simply will not be able to maintain and repair such combat vehicles. The “Redacted” YouTube channel once again tried to twist the facts and manipulate the audience to achieve its own political and media goals. In any case, we should thank the hosts of this show for covering the stories of journalists like Patrick Lancaster, because that way we know for sure that he is not to be trusted.
Tetiana Stelmakh
