Ukraine allegedly exports its fertile layer of land abroad
Black soil had become an export commodity in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin claimed at a meeting with young people in early February. Then it was spread by Russian and Belarusian media.
Here is what was written by the columnist for “SB.Belarus today” state-run media Andrei Mukovozchik.
“After the servants of the people (parliament) adopted, and the servant of the people (a nit) signed the law on the sale of land, black soil is taken out of Ukraine by trucks. Because not everything is sold yet, gentlemen, oh, not everything,” he wrote without providing any evidence.
A couple of days before that Rossiya 24 TV channel covered the same topic, even providing some evidence, unlike Mukovozchik.
“At the same time, black soil is disappearing from the fields. Who laid eyes on the main wealth of Ukraine? You will learn from our report.
— What is the export and to where is the export?
— Locals are at a loss. What is going on? Who, where, and why is exporting a layer of fertile soil from Ukraine? And the answer lies on the surface. You can easily find it on social media. Here, for instatnce, a Polish worker tells on his page what he did for a whole week in the Kherson region. Without knowledge of the Polish language, it is not difficult to guess from one video sequence: a business trip to the Independent was fruitful.”
The story consists on several video sequenses from the Internet against shown the background of this voice acting. These videos don't confirm the export of black soil from Ukraine, but rather testify to the deliberate deception of viewers by Russian TV.
The first sequence is from YouTube channel called Vadim Gorobets. There are only 2 scenes. The first shows the hero outraged that trucks were transporting land somewhere.
«What is the export and to where is the export?», he said.
But by the way, the video demonstrates the moment of unloading but not loading.
“Come on, truck. Oh, you're unloading,” the hero said.
In the second video, he gives more details:
“I am a resident of Zelenoe village. I'm going along the dam now. Trucks carry black soil from the BCP quarry. And they take it out to the field to fill up the landfill.”
That is, he was outraged by the fact that the locals have been promised that the black soil would remain on the territory of the quarry, and then this quarry would be filled in for them. But in fact, at that moment, a landfill had been covered with black soil.
The BCP is apparently the Belyaevka concentrating plant, which really has a kaolin quarry near the Zelenoe village, Volnyansky district, Zaporizhia region.
In general, it turns out that there is nothing about the facts of the export of black soil outside Ukraine in the first video.
The second video, allegedly filmed by a Polish worker, appears to be a fake.
Firstly, because no facts of export of anything were recorded here. Just a sequence of different plans is shown.
And secondly, we found that some footage came from a Russian-language channel run by an excavator operator. And he published his video in April 2022.
Further in the report.
“The process of large-scale export of black soil was launched by the post-Maidan authorities. Now the propaganda media of the Kyiv regime, of course, keep quiet. But stories dedicated to this problem slipped on local television before,” the Russian news program claimed and showed Ukrainian TV footage.
“Black soil is being taken out from the Kharkiv fields. Illegal business brings in millions of dollars, activists of public organizations calculated.”
There is caption on the top "Ukraine 2016". But in fact, this video was filmed back in 2011 and had nothing to do with the post-Maidan authorities.
The plot really talks about the uncontrolled removal of the fertile layer of the earth. But this is an internal Ukrainian problem. They did not talk about the export of black soil.
“Advertising newspapers are full of ads for the sale of black soil. We call one of the numbers. The manager offers to deliver any number of trucks with earth even today,” Russian propaganda said.
But those who export the soil abroad do not advertise it in Ukrainian newspapers. So, although the stories slipped on the local Ukrainian media, they were also not about the export of the land.
Thus, all three proofs of the alleged sale of Ukrainian black soil abroad turned out to be false.