Manipulation Metallurgists' Day was celebrated massively in Mariupol
On social networks were spread the video of a concert in Mariupol, at which the residents allegedly celebrated en masse and sang along to "a white swan on the pond..." of the soloist of the Russian group "Lisopoval." Russian media and pro-Russian telegram channels distributed photos and videos of the "very massive" participation of citizens in the concert from the "press service" of the so-called DNR. Then these videos were shared on Facebook. It is manipulation.
Indeed, July 17 is celebrated in Ukraine as the Day of Metallurgical and Mining Workers. A similar holiday is also celebrated in Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. As NotaYenota writes, the occupiers decided to hold several events for Metallurgist's Day, including a concert with the participation of a special guest, Serhiy Kuprik. In the comments to the video of the show, Ukrainian users write, "who are our guys fighting for," "look, we felt sorry for them," etc. It is precisely the effect the occupiers sought — to convince the Ukrainians of the "treason" of the Mariupol's residents.
More than 400,000 people used to live in Mariupol. Probably, among them, some have pro-Russian views. However, at least 22,000 Mariupol residents died due to the hostilities. The occupiers forcibly removed thousands of people through the so-called "filtration camps" to Russia. Many citizens left for safer places earlier. According to the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, 50-100 people still leave the city every day. Therefore, the information of the occupiers that the city's population is now 220,000 is invalid. There are no more than a thousand people in the "holiday" video, but there is no evidence that these are Mariupol residents, not specially brought actors. From another perspective, the picture of the crowd of the event is significantly different. The event is sparsely populated compared to videos from previous years. Probably some of the people were collected by distributing food packages because there are problems with food in the city. The propagandists also attracted Russian bloggers, who, in their comments, talk about the support of the residents of Mariupol by the residents of Russian cities and talk about the "peaceful" life in Mariupol.