Today, January 18, in Brovary, Kyiv region, a helicopter crashed near a kindergarten. It is a helicopter of the State Emergency Service, on board of which there was the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Minister Denys Monastyrskyi, his first deputy and secretary of state. All three died in the crash. Civilians who were close to the place where the helicopter fell were also injured. According to the Deputy Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Tymoshenko, as of 1 pm, it is known that 16 people were killed, including 3 children, 30 people were injured, but the search is still ongoing.

The Security Service of Ukraine has already opened proceedings on the disaster. Currently, investigators have three official versions:

- violation of flight rules;

- technical malfunction of the helicopter;

- its intentional destruction.

However, on anonymous telegram channels pro-Russian rhetoric is broadcasting, including those operated by Russian intelligence, a lot of messages appeared immediately after the crash with so-called versions of what happened and who was to blame. “Detector Media” has identified and explains the most common disinformation messages about the tragedy in Brovary.

1. Helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine crashed

Immediately after the tragedy, even before the catastrophe was reported by Ukrainian officials and the media, a message appeared in the telegram channels of Russian propagandists that a helicopter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had crashed in Brovary. In the reports, the authors traditionally cited their own sources without providing any confirmation. In fact, a helicopter of the State Emergency Service crashed in Brovary. In particular, information about this appeared on the pages of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi. The president's messages also said that Denys Monastyrskyi and his team were in the helicopter at the time of the accident.

2. The plane crash was due to air defense

This is one of the most common messages of Russian propagandists about the likely causes of the helicopter crash. Like, a helicopter with the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was simply shot down by Ukrainian air defense. Further, the versions on the accusation of the air defense operators differ: in some reports they claimed that this was done intentionally, in others, on the contrary, they insisted that it happened by accident, but also because the air defense in Ukraine is faulty. Firstly, at the time of the helicopter crash in Brovary and in general in the Kyiv region there was no air raid alert. According to the Alert Map, the last time an air alert was announced in the Kyiv region was on January 14, during a massive enemy missile attack. So the likelihood that the air defense worked unnecessarily, not seeing a threat from the air, is scanty. Secondly, this version is not included in the list of official ones considered by the Security service of Ukraine (SBU) investigators. However, this is not the first time that Russian propaganda has accused operators of the Ukrainian air defense system of negligence and, accordingly, of crimes. The propagandists used this technique for the last time on Saturday, January 14, when the entrance to a residential building was destroyed as a result of the fall of a Russian rocket. More than four dozen people died as a result of the disaster. Propagandists systematically spread fakes and manipulations about the work of air defense. In particular, Russia needs this to accuse Ukraine of various crimes, mostly committed through the fault of Russia itself. In this case, the propaganda found a reason to once again accuse Ukraine of alleged negligence, because of which people die.

3. Ukraine hides the true cause of the disaster

Another message was shared in anonymous telegram channels broadcasting pro-Russian rhetoric. Anonymous reports say that the Ukrainian authorities allegedly know and hide the true cause of the disaster in Brovary. Like, Ukrainians may not even wait, because they won’t be told the truth, because they won’t like it. In fact, it is too early to talk about the causes of the plane crash before the investigation is over. In order to accurately state who is to blame for the disaster, whether it was accidental etc., evidence is needed for the sake of collecting which the SBU initiated an investigation and put forward the first official versions. However, such a message is intended to discredit the Ukrainian authorities and once again nourish the narrative about its alleged negligence and indifference to its own people.

4. The accident happened because of cheap helicopters

In order to create the appearance of a careless Ukrainian government, the message was also spread that the accident allegedly occurred due to bad helicopters that Ukraine purchased. Allegedly, it says about former helicopters that the Ministry of the internal affairs purchased from France in September 2018. Like, the helicopter crash was due to the fact that the helicopter was common and bad, because earlier the Norwegians allegedly refused a batch of the same helicopters. In fact, there is no data on which helicopter is in question, and whether it was purchased in France. There is indeed a version of a technical malfunction among the official versions of the investigators, however, it is impossible to state that the crash occurred because of this and, in particular, because the Ukrainian authorities deliberately purchased faulty helicopters, as there is not a single confirmation of this yet.

In addition, anonymous telegram channels circulate versions of a helicopter shot down from an American Stinger man-portable surface-to-air missile system or a drone. However, the facts confirming these versions are also not provided by anonymous authors, and none of them is included in the list of official ones.

Russian propaganda once again speculates on sensitive topics and tries to promote its own narratives, according to which it is Ukraine that is the aggressor, and the Ukrainian authorities do not care about their people, because people are dying because of their negligence and criminal actions. In this case, propagandists make unfounded and hasty conclusions, ignoring the official versions of the investigation.