Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

Are we being buried by one-sided coverage?

A documentary on the troubled Ukrainian region of Donbass by the filmmaker and French war correspondent Anne-Laure Bonnel is making waves for understandable reason.

In an interview with the French TV channel Cnews, she said, "I have no political message. But I know this conflict has been going on for eight years and there are up to 13,000 deaths now. People are exhausted ... The Russian-speaking Ukrainian population has been bombarded by their own government. "

Her interview went viral, drawing both praise and outrage, with some accusing her of having a political agenda. The filmmaker responded to the accusations by reposting the link to her 2016 documentary, and videos of the ruins and people in the region on her Facebook page.

Bonnel also claimed that her film had been rejected in many countries, and had been repeatedly deleted from the Internet.

Within days of the interview, her documentary on the region was uploaded to many social media platforms. Prior to the TV interview, it had no ratings on the movie review site IMDB, but now it has a rating of 8.7/10 with 84 reviews.

French war correspondent Anne-Laure Bonnel is the person behind the controversial documentary "Donbass."

Some of Bonnel's social media postings about the real situation in Donbass

The early YouTube posting of the documentary, which was uploaded in 2017, only had French subtitles. It carried a cautionary message posted by the social media sharing platform saying, "The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences."

Till date, it has chalked up about 300,000 views.

"They are all Ukrainians, and they are surprised that Europe is realizing the situation now, when for them, it has been everyday life for eight years. The situation has been lost since 2014," Bonnel remarked.

It is clear that the roots of the ongoing Ukraine crisis are linked to incidences and atrocities in Donbass and the neighboring Russian-speaking regions. But only one side of the story is being played up, despite the fact that the locals have been living in fear for eight years.

It is becoming more difficult to get both sides of the story because of media bias, language barriers and social media search algorithms that are hard to comprehend.

Many Donbass residents were skeptical after Bonnel was introduced as a French journalist to the locals.

"Will they really show it?" was the common refrain.

A woman in the documentary is heard saying, "The whole world stood up for you when 12 people were killed," which is very likely a reference to the Charlie Hebdo shooting in France. "When thousands of people are killed in this country, nobody cares."

An old woman points to a 6- or 7-year-old boy and shouts at the camera, "Do they look like terrorists?"

The documentary starts with a 2014 speech by the then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who openly supported the "Maidan movement." In the speech, Poroshenko is heard saying, "We will have work and they will not. We will have pensions and they will not. We will have benefits for pensioners and children, they will not! Our children will go to school and daycare, and their children will stay in the cellars! Because they can't do anything. Precisely that, and that's how, we will win the war. "

He was referring to the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine.

Bonnel said the speech was the reason she decided to travel to the Donbass region in January 2015 to "meet the inhabitants of Donbass and hear what they have to say."

Some news sites argued that the speech was taken out of context. But "their children will stay in cellars" was apparently understood by many in the Donbass region as a reference to them.

Among many postings about the documentary, one reads, "The Ukrainian government has bombarded its own people since 2014! Is this what the EU is supporting? Why no media covered this since 2014?"

Another says: "Information is always one-sided, always. Thanks to Cnews for letting us know about all these. Salute to this journalist."

There are also several video clips of Russian-speaking Ukrainians being harassed or beaten by masked men. The clips emerged around the time when a language policy was being discussed in the country. Russian-speaking Ukrainians complain about the bias in the policy. They identify themselves as Ukrainians but don't want to give up on the Russian language.

In 2019, Poroshenko was replaced by the current President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It was reported in 2019 that police raided Poroshenko's headquarters and gym for alleged theft of servers with classified information, tax evasion and money laundering. More criminal charges were added in the following two years, including state treason.

"You can understand a lot of things, but not torture," a villager says in the documentary, alleging gruesome killings of fellow villagers, including one who had his ear chopped off, while bodies with hands tied to the back were also found.

A former Ukrainian soldier, identifying himself as Andrei, claims he deserted the army because "I would rather die with my people than kill them."

Getting a proper and fair perspective on any global events is important, failing which, it becomes just another casualty.

Milosia2 Loc: Cleveland Ohio

Now a Warning ?

Tiptop789 Loc: State of Denial

CD, I will ask you straight out, what exactly is the point of all your "gems"? You seem to think it was correct for Putin to invade Ukraine because he feels threatened? You continually post that the invading is a cake walk, the Russians are being embraced by the ethnic Ukrainians and ask the world wide coverage is fake and post of a larger plot. Russia assists to have been cut off from international finance. Airlines are no longer flying in & out of Russia. Many shipping companies are refusing Russian cargo. It seems most of the entire world is against this invasion. Even China is not openly giving Putin a thumbs up. Of course, you say this is all false, drummed up by the MSM.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

I’m going to look for this as I would like to watch it… Thank you for posting this as well.. More perspective is always better. Although I believe both countries are to blame and what they need to do is find a true meaningful truth and peace.

Along the same lines while I was looking for the video for just a moment I came across thought it it may interest you as well.

https://uatv.ua/en/new-donbas-documentary/

pegw

You seam to have a lot of Putin talking points. The fear of a more Western thinking Ukraine was only a threat to Putin, as he didn't have any leverage over the Ukraine. Ukraine did not want a war, just not to be under the thumb of Russia

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

I believe CD does support Russia and the invasion…??? I don’t know how you can have one being right and the other being wrong when they have in fact done the same thing to each other for years…

I personally do not support an unprovoked invasion/war. And I know how can it be unprovoked when they have been at war with each other all the time shooting bombs off, killing people, suppressing their own “ citizens etc.

It’s like the freaking Middle East all over again but just with Russia and Ukraine this time. I’m not to worry the Middle East will get going again too…

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Great post!!!!

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

And like the ME, we should stay out of it.

FallenOak Loc: St George Utah

However, you feel it is very good to be under the thumb of NATO?

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Yes sir, absolutely don’t belong in it at all. Stand in solidarity to whatever side you believe or support but let them handle their own affairs.

pegw

Are we under the thumb of NATO? It was falling apart before Russia started the build up before the invasion. Biden reunited them.

Simple Sam Loc: USA

my question to you, do you think we just may be receiving just one side of the story? The world-wide views you think is news is censorded and filtered, how do we know any of the alphabet news is being unbiased?

woodguru

Do you think your "gems" might have a bias?

Donbas as a Russian insurgency supported region has it's own dynamics that have little to nothing to do with the rest of the Ukraine...who could have moved there if they felt strongly supportive...Russia turned the breakaway regions into mini Russia's that made the rest of the Ukraine look much more desirable.

woodguru

Like CD thought support of his biased perspective is a gem, you are cut from the same cloth

woodguru

There are pieces of the puzzle that can't be made up, put them together for the picture
...Two million people have fled...verifiable from where they fled to
...Ways out have been attacked, making assistance to cities near impossible
...Captured POW's are telling much the same story about being duped into being there...now verified by Russia
...Equipment failures and fuel shortages can't be manufactured, Russian equipment does not look like US versions
...attacks such as the reactor sites can't be made up, they are what they are
...It would be hard to fake devastated cities on overviews