Photo: A screenshot from the video
Citing an official announcement of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda writes that Russia was preparing to discredit Ukraine, aiming to influence the allies’ attitude and impact the supply of Western weapons. Security experts for foreign fact-checkers say that Ukraine is in an existential battle against Russia and that there is no reason it would be selling arms to Hamas, writes Truthmeter.mk.
Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:
We are fact-checking a post on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) stating:
The Western weapons supplied to Ukraine ended up in the hands of Hamas in Israel. The American TOW system destroys Israeli tanks and helicopters. The weapon has two ends.
Contrary to the claim in the post, there is no evidence that the weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western countries ended up in the hands of Hamas and that they are used to destroy Israeli tanks and helicopters.
Ukrainska Pravda writes that the Russian occupiers provided Hamas militants with US and EU-manufactured trophy weapons that were captured during the war in Ukraine.
The Defense Intelligence of Ukraine says that Russia is preparing to discredit Ukraine to affect the allies’ attitude and impact the supply of Western weapons, reports Ukrainska Pravda.
The medium quotes an official announcement of the Chief Intelligence Department of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine that says:
Russia’s intelligence officers are conducting a campaign of discreditation of Ukraine in the Middle East.
The aggressor state, Russia, used the Hamas terrorist attack on the State of Israel for a large-scale provocation against Ukraine.
The Chief Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine informs that the Russian side has already handed over to the terrorists of Hamas weapons captured during the war in Ukraine, i.e. trophy weapons made in the United States and EU countries.
The next step, according to the Russian plan would be fake accusations that the Ukrainian military is selling off Western weapons to terrorists on regular basis.
Within the Kremlin disinformation campaign, these fakes are meant as a basis for a number of “investigations” in the Western media.
Russian intelligence services intend to use the relevant comments of a traitor from the Ukrainian Border Service, Senior Lieutenant Ruslan Syrovyi, who recently defected to Moscow, to bring weight to this campaign.
Another enemy provocation is aimed at discrediting the Armed Forces of Ukraine and provoking complete suspension of the military assistance to our country by Western partners, states the announcement of the Chief Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, posted on 9 October.
Adding to the narrative that Western weapons intended for Ukraine ended up in Hamas’ hands, a video was shared that the Ukrainian authorities claimed was fake. The video shows someone presenting himself as a representative of the terrorist group Hamas who presents Ukrainian weapons, claiming in Arabic language that Ukraine was the one selling Western weapons to the terrorists. The video lasts only 12 seconds but causes many suspicions.
It should be stressed that, in fact, the Ukrainians could not do that, because our Western partners are carefully monitoring the weapons and military equipment supplied for the fight against the Russian aggressor. Obviously, the video was recorded quickly by one of the Russian information centers. In such a manner, the Russians are trying to justify and create an illusion that they are not involved with the Hamas terrorists. Well, we know about meetings between high-level officials of the Russian Federation and leaders and members of terrorist organizations. Terrorists have been cooperating for a long time with terrorists, announced the Military Media Centre, a platform coordinated by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Citing sources from intelligence circles about Hamas-militants planning the unannounced attack on Israel at least one year, with key support of Iranian allies who provided military training and logistical support, as well as tens of millions of dollars for weapons, Washington Post publishes:
While Iran’s precise role in Saturday’s violence remains unclear, the attacks reflected Tehran’s years-long ambition to surround Israel with legions of paramilitary fighters armed with increasingly sophisticated weapons systems, capable of striking deep inside the Jewish state. Hamas, the Gaza-based Palestinian militant organization that led the attack, has historically maintained a degree of independence from Tehran compared with true Iranian proxy groups such as the Lebanese-based Hezbollah. But in recent years, Hamas has benefited from massive infusions of Iranian cash, as well as technical help for manufacturing rockets and drones with advanced guidance systems, in addition to training in military tactics – some of which occurred in camps outside Gaza, say representatives of the intelligence structures for the Washington Post.
The amount of training, logistics, communication, personnel and weapons required provides a massive footprint”, said for Washington Post a former CIA senior operations officer who served in counterterrorism roles in the Middle East, Marc Polymeropoulos.
This suggests both Iranian involvement, given the complexity of the attack, and highlights the colossal intelligence failure. The use of paraglider – reminiscent of a spectacular 1987 attack by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in Israel that killed several soldiers – surely required training outside of Gaza, said Polymeropoulos for the Washington Post.
Jonathan Finer, U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser at the White House, in an interview for CBS News, said:
What I can say, without a doubt, is that Iran is broadly complicit in these attacks. Iran has been Hamas’ primary backer for decades. They have provided them weapons. They have provided them training. They have provided them financial support. And so, in terms of broad complicity, we are very clear about the role of Iran.
As the Washington Post’s article clarifies, the leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, acknowledged in an interview last year that his group received 70 million dollars in military assistance from Iran. According to the State Department report from 2020, Iran provides about 100 million dollars annually to Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine.
Current and former intelligence officials confirmed that Iran had provided technical help to Hamas in manufacturing more than 4 thousand rockets and armed drones launched into Israel since Saturday. At least some Hamas militants also have undergone training in advanced military tactics, including at Lebanese camps staffed by technical advisers from Hezbollah.
Hamas could not be a fraction of what it is, neither politicaly, nor socialy, nor as a religious entity nor or a terrorist and militant entity, without Iran’s financial support and provision of weapons and training, says Matthew Levitt, a former senior official in the Treasury and State Departments who focused on counter-terrorism.
Fact-checkers from Lead Stories debunked a similar disinformation as this one we are fact-checking, according to which Hamas itself admitted that Ukraine was selling weapons to them.
Tobias Borck, a Middle East security expert at the Royal United Services Institute in London, says that Ukraine is in an existential battle against Russia and it is illogical to sell weapons to Hamas
Hamas only has one state backer: Iran. Hamas is not a proxy of Iran, but it is a partner, says Borck for Lead Stories.
Raphael Cohen, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, for Lead Stories stated that he was skeptical about this claim and that it was not particularly likely that Ukrainians would sell weapons to Hamas… for a variety of reasons and he listed several of them.
First off, it is going to anger the people who they rely on for support, so it would be strategically stupid. Second, they need those weapons to defend themselves, so they’re not really in a place to begin supplying weapons elsewhere. And when you think about who would have a vested interest in leaking this story or making this story up, it sounds awfully like Russian misinformation to me, at least. In the sense that Russia has a vested interest in trying to interrupt particularly American supplies of weaponry to Ukraine, says Cohen.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, this post is assessed as untrue.
