Spinning Russia’s military mishaps State broadcasters emphasize rescue heroics while minimizing Ukrainian strikes that exposed strategic airfields’ vulnerability
Russia’s major news networks faced a considerable challenge covering events from the May 31–June 1 weekend, which included train derailments in two regions and drone strikes on strategic warplanes at multiple airfields. Meduza examines the narratives that dominated the airwaves as broadcasters devised self-serving frames for numerous bombings that claimed at least seven lives and destroyed at least a dozen aircraft.
Leading Russian television networks mostly ignored Ukraine’s drone strikes on military airfields, focusing instead on train derailments that killed seven
The national television networks Channel One and Rossiya-1 devoted their entire news coverage on June 1 to the overpass bombings that caused train derailments in the Bryansk and Kursk regions. This focus continued on their flagship Sunday evening news programs, highlighting search and rescue operations and cleanup work. Broadcasters reported on emergency aid provided to passengers of the Moscow-bound train and how people helped each other out of the wreckage.
“After the train wreck, the virtues that have always defined our people in adversity were on full display,” reported a Channel One correspondent. “From the very beginning, the train’s crew sprang into action. The passengers, including those who had been injured, helped others who were in even worse shape, especially the people trapped in wrecked train cars. Despite the late hour, residents of Vygonicchi also joined the rescue effort.”
In evening programming, Channel One and Rossiya-1 also devoted segments to Vladimir Putin’s role in the emergency response. The networks reported in almost identical words that the president was monitoring the situation closely and receiving reports from multiple agencies, including the Federal Security Service, the Emergency Situations Ministry, the Health Ministry, and regional officials in Bryansk.
The networks’ flagship Sunday evening shows spent less than a minute covering Ukrainian drone strikes on military airfields across the country, simply reading out a press release from the Russian military.
NTV linked the overpass bombings and drone attacks to negotiations in Istanbul, warning of a ‘harsh’ Russian retaliation
NTV’s flagship evening program on June 1 suggested that the overpass bombings in the Bryansk and Kursk regions were linked to Russia’s negotiations with Ukraine, scheduled to resume the next day in Istanbul:
While everyone was waiting for the second round of negotiations on Ukraine, two overpasses were blown up on Sunday night in our border region. [...] With the first collapse in the Bryansk region, it was clear that this was no mere tragic accident. And a little later, Governor [Alexander] Bogomaz declared that the overpass had been blown up. […] In the Kursk region, three people were injured, but the bombing scheme is similar. So the big question is: who's behind these bombings? Who does this on the eve of possible negotiations?
NTV anchor Vladimir Chernyshev denounced Ukraine’s drone attacks as “audacious and suicidal for whoever planned them.” He told viewers that “this provocation” was calculated to “escalate military operations” and warned that Russia would strike back hard:
Undoubtedly, as always, Russia’s response will be harsh. You definitely wouldn't want to be Ukraine right now. But the Kyiv regime is narrowing its own window of opportunities. Every successive round of negotiations will only be worse for them. But they apparently hope to drag out the fighting by basically switching to sabotage warfare with Russia, so they can keep raking in money for it. And they hope for continued cover from their handlers. The Kyiv regime has already shown its true colors so many times, including in our border region, that the questions answer themselves when you ask who benefits from such actions or why we need to create a security buffer zone at the borders.
Pundit Vladimir Solovyov demanded the return of Soviet-era counter-intelligence executions, provoking criticism from Z-bloggers
On his network program, pundit Vladimir Solovyov complained that Russia hasn’t revived the Soviet Union’s WWII-era counter-intelligence umbrella organization, “SMERSH,” more than three years into the Ukraine war. When discussing the drone strikes on Russian airfields, Solovyov lashed out at a Russian conscript soldier who allegedly shared footage of some of the damage, calling the man a “traitor to the Motherland” and demanding that he be “shot.”
“Can’t we just shoot this conscript? Just take this scum out and simply shoot him in front of his unit as a traitor to the Motherland. He’s just working for the enemy now. No, we can’t. Our laws don’t allow it. We’re humanists, don’t you know. We can’t even scold him,” Solovyov said, arguing that the soldier wouldn’t have had access to a phone at the time if the military enforced its own policies.
Solovyov's remarks drew significant attention on social media, including criticism from some of the invasion’s most vocal supporters. The Telegram channel Romanov Lite wrote, “This piece of garbage just went off the rails again. Because he thinks he can get away with anything.”
Milblogger Roman Alekhin also questioned Solovyov’s logic:
So we’re supposed to shoot a teenager who shits his pants with everything happening around him and reaches for his phone, since that's exactly how he was raised in civilian life under the modern ideology of “Pics or It Didn’t Happen,” but those responsible for instilling in him the army’s ideology and military discipline — what, do we reward them? [...] And what do we do with those who spent years in the media on taxpayers’ money, covering up all the failures and silencing those who told the truth, whitewashing those who created the conditions for this?
In response to Solovyov’s comments, the Telegram channel Ghost of Novorossiya recalled that former Russian Federal Security Service officer and Donbas militia leader Igor Girkin was sentenced to four years in prison for “fomenting extremism” with a similar incitement.