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Fact-checking: French Journalist Suggests Ukraine is Guilty of Crocus Hall Terrorist Attack, According to Belarus State TV

Firstly, the Islamic State has not sunk into oblivion, as Sych says.

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Fake appearance date: 31.03.2024
Belarusian state-run TV insists on Ukraine's involvement in the Russian Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. In support of this version, a TV Belarus 1 host, Andrei Sych, presented an excerpt from a speech by a French journalist, which was expected to hint at Ukraine's guilt. The Weekly Top Fake team found out what’s wrong with it.

“For greater reliability, they even dug up ISIS from oblivion, which took full responsibility upon itself,” Andrei Sych, correspondent of the state TV Belarus 1, claimed in the news on March 31, 2024.

Then, he added that “not everyone believed the hastily concocted story and are asking legitimate questions.” Next, news viewers were shown a video with a French journalist.

Here is what the French journalist allegedly states in the interpretation of Belarusian state news:

“When you hear Zelensky’s explanations as if the Russian special services did this, it would be very stupid. Besides, he said it too early. And then, when he claims that Ukraine has never used terrorism as a weapon of struggle, he mocks the world. Because, even if we forget about Nord Stream, we are still waiting for the official truth about the explosion of Dugin’s car near Moscow. More precisely, about the bomb attack on his daughter, who died. Then the killing of an anti-Ukrainian blogger during a terrorist attack in a cafe in St. Petersburg. These are attacks that were carried out by Ukrainian special services.” 

Firstly, the Islamic State has not sunk into oblivion, as Sych says. Two days before the terrorist attack, the FSB announced that it had detained an ISIS militant in Moscow. On the day of the terrorist attack, Russian media reported about the detention of 30 accomplices of ISIS militants in Ingushetia. On March 7, the FSB reported that it had prevented an ISIS militant attack on a synagogue in Moscow.

Secondly, viewers of the Belarus state TV news were shown only part of the French journalist interview.

In the original video, the speaker answered the question “Can we rule out the participation of the Ukrainian authorities in this terrorist attack?” Here is the answer he give at the end: “I don’t know.”

In addition, here is part of the conversation in the studio of the TV channel CNews, which was not shown on Belarusian state TV:

— Look, Vladimir Putin, having failed to evade an attack, tends to want to exploit it and unite the people behind him by pointing to the enemy. <...> If the Ukrainians were so crazy as to organize such an attack, taking into account all security measures...

— That's not what I said. I'm talking about the Ukrainian special services...

— If the Ukrainians were crazy enough to stage a terrorist attack of this kind, they would've taken incredible risks and reaped negligible benefits.. <...> They would've put themselves at risk of condemnation from Western society. <...>

— But could we completely rule out that this was not the Ukrainian government at all?

— That's exactly what I asked.

— Were there any plans to help them get away from the mafia? No, this is not the same question, Pascal.

— I don't know.

The Islamic State (ISIS) organization is recognized as a terrorist in the EU, USA, Russia, and many other countries worldwide.