Russia under attack from Ukrainian combat locusts: Russian propaganda invents new story

Russians are being told by Russian propaganda that Ukrainian fighters have been breeding locusts from the United States in a warehouse in Luhansk Oblast, from which the insects were deployed to attack crops in Luhansk Oblast and Russia.

Source: RIA Novosti

Details: The Russian propaganda video shows a woman in military uniform who allegedly found a "letter" dated 2019 in a sanitation station. The letter-writer asks a Ukrainian team to "ensure that goods are escorted from the Washington Research University in Missouri to the territory of the Luhansk Oblast Fish Factory".

The woman goes on to say that she "had a look on the internet" and discovered that a laboratory at this university was engaged in breeding combat insects and conducting experiments on locusts in "combat engineering".

The woman insists that Luhansk Oblast has perfect conditions for the "quick and easy" breeding of locusts. The Russian propaganda video then shows the woman walking through a warehouse.

Quote: "The abundance of sawdust mixed with sand indicates that there were locust larvae here in the warehouse. This is a substrate for the development of larvae, or to store some of them in until they enter the breeding ground."

More details: The camera operator then focused on some "locust wings" that happened to be on the floor. They also showed what were apparently some burned locusts; the woman said "something happened [to them] when exposed to chemicals."

Quote: "Smoke bombs were made from saltpetre, which created a dense barrier so that the locusts would not fly in the wind. Locals say the locusts did not fly at first. They emerged near that stream [she points to it – ed.], walking. In other words, they didn’t fly at first, but when the smoke started, the locusts took off [into the air – ed.] and began to fly towards the Luhansk People’s Republic and Russia."

Another person, ostensibly a military man, says that puddles on the warehouse floor indicate that chemicals were unloaded there, and the viewer is shown a puddle of a "poisonous colour" [in fact an ordinary puddle – ed.].

The woman assures Russians that the size of the locust that flew out in July indicates that its origin is unnatural. She noted that "local environmentalists" had told her that. The propaganda video then featured alleged eyewitnesses of the locust raid.

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