The New York Times, in a rather surprising move, published on July 13th, coverage of the Ukrainian intervention into Kursk, which has raised the hackles of Kiev, upset at this “breach” of the Western media’s “Ukrainian narrative.” The article, entitled “Quote of the Day: Corpses and Carcasses in the Fields of Kursk” by Moscow-based German photojournalist Nanna Heitmann, who was allowed to travel in the area, sometimes accompanied by Akhmat soldiers, documented some of the abuses by the Ukrainian forces against the civilian population. She also related the anger of some of the citizens toward the Ukrainian forces as well as toward the Russian authorities, whom they felt did not act quickly enough in dealing with the incursion. (And many Kursk officials have been subsequently fired or even imprisoned for their actions or omissions in the matter.) Even though Heitmann reported incidents that may have been war crimes, she could produce no conclusive evidence as to who had committed them.
Nevertheless, Ukrainian authorities were more than upset that their key defender in the West, the New York Times, could allow such a breach. Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, said on X: “Whoever at @nytimes thought it was smart to report alongside Russian war criminals made the dumbest decision. This isn’t balance or ‘the other side of the story.’ This is simply letting Russian propaganda mislead the audience.” The Ukrainian government’s Center for Countering Disinformation stressed that the article doesn’t mention that Russia invaded Ukraine and makes no reference to the suffering of Ukrainian civilians as a result of Russian aggression. “In a war where one side is clearly the aggressor, neutrality without context becomes disinformation,” CCD said.
