"Ukraine must suffer" - Kremlin propagandist gloats over Russia’s murderous missile attack on Dnipro tower block
A Russian propagandist has openly spoken of ‘pleasure’ at Russia’s missile attack on an apartment block in Dnipro and, showing a photo of Mariupol after Russian bombing, has vowed that the same carnage and devastation will be wreaked on Kharkiv and other Ukrainian cities.
Russian state media are, on the whole, avoiding any mention of the two Russian missile strikes on 14 January. One totally destroyed a tower block in Dnipro, killing at least 40 civilians, including three children. That figure seems certain to rise as desperate attempts are still underway to try to find many others trapped under the rubble. At least one person was killed in another missile attack on an apartment block in Kryvy Rih. Some Russian propagandists are also, reportedly, denying that Russia was behind the attacks.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent known as Sergei Mardan (in fact, Sergei Leleka) does not, strictly speaking, admit that Russia was behind the carnage, only to his pleasure at viewing the “wonderful fireworks”. “Even if”, he claims, this proves to be a Russian attack (as was indisputably the case), it would have been “much more pleasant to see the Dnipro Bridge destroyed.” Having thus admitted to delight at seeing a missile attack on innocent civilians, he goes on to show photos of Russia’s destruction of Mariupol, and to assure this viewers that the same will happen in Kharkiv, Dnipro and Kyiv.
On his VKontakte page, Mardan claimed that Russia never deliberately targets civilians “regardless of their political views, level of support for the Kyiv regime and attitude to Russia. But the principle that “Ukraine must suffer” remains unchanged.”
He ends with the following: “Therefore the missile strikes will continue until the full enlightenment of Ukrainian minds and realization that peace comes from the East, and from the West only Leopards and HIMARS”.
In July 2022, Mardan publicly suggested that Russia should create “a small local Zaporizhzhia GULAG” [i.e. Soviet labour camp] for those Ukrainians in occupied parts of Ukraine who do not support Russia.
Sergei Mardan plays a vocal role in the political talk shows on state television, and also has a program on Komsomolskaya Pravda’s radio, called ‘Morning Mardan’. He also has his own program on the channel of notorious Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov. He is, most definitely, a propagandist and warmonger for the current Russian regime. It is even possible that, like Anton Krasovsky, who in October 2022, lost his post as broadcasting director for the state funded Russia Today [RT] channel after calling for Ukrainian children to be drowned and burned, Mardan will get a rap on the knuckles for his brutal honesty on 14 January. It is, however, clear that both of those individuals and others, currently inciting to genocide in Ukraine, believe they are doing what their paymasters want. It is, therefore, vital that all such individuals are placed under international sanctions and that they too face charges at the international tribunal which should be launched now.
It is a clear war crime to target civilians, with this including essentially terrorist attacks on critical energy infrastructure, leaving people in the middle of winter without heating, electricity and other water. Even if the Russians had planned to hit such infrastructure, this would, therefore, not change the situation. There is, however, every reason, as the photos Mardan gloatingly showed from Mariupol, to think that the Russians are targeting apartment blocks, medical establishments and humanitarian aid depots. They are already known to have killed almost 500 children, although the real figure is likely to be higher, as Russia is actively trying to destroy and hide the evidence of its crimes in Mariupol and other occupied cities.