In its

report for Aug. 2, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said

separatist fighters had introduced themselves as Russian servicemen,

immediately prompting an uproar in Ukrainian and Western media.

“An armed man guarding the facility at one of the sites claimed that he

and those present at the site were part of the 16th airborne brigade from

Orenburg, Russian Federation. They did not wear identifying insignia,” the

report read.

The information was widely circulated in Ukrainian and international

media and portrayed as proof of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine. According to

Ukraine’s Ministry of Information Politics, however, that is precisely what the

separatist fighters had been counting on.

“In regards to the information in the OSCE report for Aug. 2 about how

one of the armed terrorists identified himself and other Russian mercenaries as

‘part of the 16th airborne brigade from Orenburg – there is no such

brigade. So we believe that this may have been a planned information operation to

discredit Ukrainian media and the OSCE, or it may have just been the stupidity

of the Russian terrorists,” a statement on the ministry’s Facebook page

read.

If the ministry is right, it would suggest the Russian-backed

separatists have reverted to the old Soviet tactic of disinformation, or the deliberate spreading of false

information to dupe one’s enemy.

Michael Bociurkiw, spokesman for the OSCE’s Special Monitoring Mission

to Ukraine, could not immediately be reached for comment on the matter.

Staff writer Allison Quinn can be reached at a.caseyquinn@gmail.com