Media Release 19 March 2024
The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) has joined the Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, in condemning the ABC’s decision to air Sean Langan’s documentary ‘Ukraine’s War – The Other Side’ on Four Corners last night, which provided a platform for Russian propaganda and gave Russian soldiers free rein to justify their brutal, unlawful invasion of a sovereign country.
In a series of unchallenged interviews, viewers see stomach-turning images of Langan fist-bumping, handshaking, hugging and smiling alongside Russian soldiers, and listening to gross lies, hate and genocidal intentions.
“It is nonsense for the ABC to pretend this was fearless journalism, bringing us ‘extraordinary access’ to the ‘other side’. It was a stage managed, Kremlin controlled media exercise. The Russian media is not free. It is plain as day that a British journalist, accompanied by a fixer endorsed by Russia’s foreign ministry, was going to be a pawn to promote Moscow’s rhetoric about its war in Ukraine,” said Stefan Romaniw OAM, co-chair of the AFUO.
“This is why platforms such as the Russian-controlled Russia Today and Sputnik were banned in Australia and around the world at the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Spreading lies and sowing confusion about right and wrong is a direct aim of Russian propaganda. And now the ABC has fallen into the trap, using taxpayers’ money to beam Russian propaganda directly into Australian living rooms.
“The documentary could have done so much more to set in context the absolute horror and carnage Russian troops have brought to a peaceful, independent and modern neighbouring country. Russian forces are accused of committing around 122,000 war crimes and human rights violations since the start of the full-scale invasion. This includes including wilful killing, rape, systemic torture and the kidnapping of at least 19,000 Ukrainian children,” Mr Romaniw said.
“The AFUO calls on the ABC to apologise for the editorial oversight which allowed for this program to be aired in Australia. The program was grossly out of touch with Australian views about Ukraine. Research commissioned by the AFUO last month showed that an overwhelming proportion of Australians (82%) agree that Russia should cease its invasion and exit Ukraine.
“The program has also caused profound distress for the Ukrainian-Australian community, many of whom have family, friends and loved ones suffering due to the actions of Russian soldiers on the frontline, in occupied areas, or in daily missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns,” Mr Romaniw said.
The AFUO will be writing to the ABC Board, Managing Director and the Minister for Communications about the broadcast. Members of the Sydney Ukrainian community will be protesting outside the ABC studios in Ultimo today at 5:00pm.
Additional information:
Extracted comments from the documentary
- Masked Russian special forces soldiers joke about murdering people, claiming that ‘Russians don’t attack, they end wars’, and that Ukrainians will be ‘punished harshly’ for their ‘blasphemy and fascist lawlessness‘
- A pro-Kremlin, Russian war blogger explains ‘We here, in our Motherland’ have come to do ‘historical justice’ and create a ‘new state’. When asked what ‘compromise’ would look like, he explains Russian forces will go back to Kyiv, arrest the Government, bring them to trial for all the crimes they have committed, and ‘kill the last Nazi’
- A soldier in a field of dead Ukrainian bodies in Ukrainian occupied territory says ‘the Russians are not invaders. We only protect what’s ours’
- A Russian military official promotes the oft-repeated Kremlin lie that the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity, which saw thousands of Ukrainians take to the streets to force the resignation of the corrupt, pro-Moscow regime of Viktor Yanukovych, was an illegal ‘coup created by the Americans’
- Russian soldiers, sitting around a campfire, are asked by Langan ‘Are [you] a little bit hurt that the West doesn’t understand [your] side?’ Cue heart stirring music, with Russian soldiers responding ‘The whole truth is here. People in the West just don’t know the truth. [When they] understand their truth is not reality, they’ll be disappointed’.
Photos of Sydney protest – by Nicholas Buenk
