ROME, March 17./TASS/. Massimo Giannini, editor-in-chief of the Italian newspaper La Stampa, has dismissed as unfair accusations of misinformation after a front-page photo from Donetsk showing the aftermath of a Ukrainian army strike on March 14 was published without explanations and moreover with the headlines blaming Russia.
"My point of view may be shared or not shared, but one cannot say that La Stampa is engaged in misinformation. This is wrongful accusation," he told TASS on Thursday, adding that he wanted to show how awful is what is going on in Ukraine. After the paper was criticized for this article, he said on Italian television that the aftermath of a Tochka-U missile attack by Ukraine had been covered in the newspaper the day earlier.
Renowned Italian journalist and historian Angelo d’Orsi wrote on his Facebook page on Thursday that he had sent a letter of protest to Massimo Giannini. He also castigated Giannini’s excusing his editor’s choice in a talk show by the wish to show the atrocities of the war.
He also mentioned that the photographer taking the shot was found, the photo used in the newspaper was simply stolen, since nobody had given La Stampa the right to use it.
The first to pay attention to the fake was Italian freelancer Vittorio Nicola Rangeloni, who has been working in the conflict zone in the east of Ukraine for the past eight years and who writes about the developments in Donbass on his Telegram channel. Over the past few days, the number of his subscribers has almost tripled. Rangeloni was among the first to post a photo and a video from the site where the missile landed.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Thursday castigated the publication by La Stampa as an example of particular cynicism.
The Kremlin is disappointed at seeing no reaction from the leaders and politicians in countries of the European Union and the US to the death of civilians in a missile attack from the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Donetsk on March 14, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.
The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) said on Monday that fragments of a Tochka-U missile fired by Ukrainian troops hit the ground in central Donetsk. According to DPR leader Denis Pushilin, the missile carried a cluster bomb. It was downed, but its fragments killed 23 people and wounded at least 18. According to the Russian defense ministry, the missile was fired at about 11:30 a.m. Moscow time from the city of Krasnoarmeisk, which is controlled by Ukrainian nationalist units.