Filmmaker Gonzalo Lira reports from the streets of the city of Kharkov that President Zelenskyy has handed out AK-47s “willy nilly,” and is letting Ukrainian citizens die for photo ops.
A pair of videos—above and below—from Gonzalo Lira, a Chilean filmmaker living in Kharkov, have gone viral online, showcasing a side of the war between Ukraine and Russia that is not commonly broadcast. In the videos, uploaded in February and March of 2022 respectively, Lira gives a rundown of what he says are Putin’s goals and tactics, as well as the Zelenskyy regime’s.
“[P]eople in the United States do not seem to understand what is going on in so far as Russia’s invasion is concerned,” Lira says in the video above, recorded on February 26. He goes on to note that Russia wants to “capture” Ukraine, not destroy it.
“You in the West, you are being goaded into believing that Putin and the Russians are like evil Antichrist. You don’t understand why the Russians are invading,” Lira says. He says that Russians don’t want to harm civilians, as that would only create enemies for the country. Instead, he says that Putin wants to install a puppet regime that is sympathetic to Russia, but doesn’t alienate the Ukrainian population.
Lira—who’s active on Telegram—says that Americans are led to believe that “Russia is failing” because it hasn’t taken out any of Ukraine’s infrastructure, which is bizarre, as he says Russia wants to keep the country intact. Everybody concedes that the Russians are “moving very very quickly,” Lira says, “but they’re only hitting military targets.” And “with a certain degree of caution.”
According to his outlook, Lira says Russia is encircling cities like Kiev so it can essentially win them via attrition. Russia has already “wiped the Ukrainian skies of everything,” but it desires to capture the Ukrainian army intact—if Russia wanted to destroy the Ukrainian army, Lira says that would’ve already been done.
“What really bothers me,” Lira says, “is that the Zelenskyy regime has no trouble causing a humanitarian crisis—in fact, they welcome a humanitarian crisis. They would love to see dead Ukrainians. And I know this for a fact. And do you know how I know this for a fact? Because the Zelenskyy government has been handing out AK-47s willy nilly to the civilian population. As I understand it they’ve already handed out 10,000 AK-47s.”
“The Zelenskyy regime is handing out these weapons,” Lira says, “[and] teaching people how to use Molotov cocktails—make Molotov cocktails and use them themselves—[because] they want to foment the people to fight the war against the Russians. And the thing, you see, is the Russians have professional soldiers. These professional soldiers, they carry a weapon, they know what to do with a weapon, and if they see somebody armed…they’re going to shoot him. And that civilian will be dead. And that will present a great photo op, now won’t it? So that Zelenskyy, can wrangle some European country or the Americans or whoever to come in and get involved in this war. And potentially escalate the situation to levels that are unimaginable.”
“The Zelenskyy regime is doing something, frankly, evil,” Lira adds. “Because it is evil to…encourage civilians to do something that incredibly dangerous and irresponsible. The Zelenskyy regime also put heavy weaponry in civilian population centers. Now, these heavy weapons, Howitzers and whatnot, they’re dangerous. And so, the Russian army, has every right and obligation to destroy such heavy weapons. But of course when trying to destroy such weapons it’s inevitable that you’re not going to quite hit the weapons when you aim for them, you’re going to hit around the weapons. And therefore, if these weapons are in the middle of apartment complexes, you’re going to have Russians shelling apartment complexes, killing innocent civilians. The Zelenskyy regime is putting these weapons in the middle of populated areas precisely because they want this to happen.”
The American also says that Zelenskyy is “forcibly conscripting” men between the ages of 18 and 60, including “old farts” like himself. This, he says, is causing men to run away from cities en masse, as they’re afraid of getting arrested and conscripted. “They’re afraid of the Zelenskyy regime,” Lira says, “not the Russians.”
In a second video, recorded February 28, 2022, Lira takes a walk around an empty Kiev while noting that the problem “we’re now having is that because of the weapons the Zelenskyy regime handed out willy nilly in the last few days, a lot of these criminals have these military grade weapons…so there have been robberies, there’s been looting, there’s been rapes, there’s been all kinds of havoc because of these criminals.” Lira goes on to say that Zelenskyy and his regime “are creating chaos in Ukraine in the name of people fighting against the Russians. It’s absurd. It’s irresponsible. And it’ll only hurt the Ukrainian people. And I’ve come to the conclusion that the Zelenskyy regime is evil.”
In the video immediately above, a mercenary who was part of the Georgia National Legion of the 102nd Ukrainian Territorial Defense, seems to corroborate some of Lira’s claims. The mercenary notes that his base, along with the base right next to his “got fucked up,” resulting in “tons of Americans and British dead. They’re [Zelenskyy’s regime] is counting our dead as their dead. They’re trying to send us to Kiev with no fucking weapons, no kit, no fucking plates; the people who are lucky enough to get weapons are getting magazines with only ten fucking rounds.”
After describing a harrowing escape out of Ukraine—in which he and two other mercenaries had to doff their military garb for Red Cross vests—the American mercenary says that “people need to stop coming here. It’s a trap. And they’re not letting you fucking leave. The best way to leave is in like a VIC [unclear term] or a car or something… It’s a mess. And it’s a trap. And I have multiple people who can confirm this story for me.”
Feature image: Helter Stelter
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