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(NSFW) Ukrainian Pickup Hit by Russian Artillery
Published 1 years ago
Video released by War Gonzo, a popular independent Russian Journalist, shows the destruction of a fire-team sized unit of Ukrainian troops operating out of a pickup truck.
For the purpose of context, it's unclear when this video was filmed but it had to have been before the end of October and after mid-September. It was filmed in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, and it shows the destruction of a pickup truck carrying a fire-team sized unit of Ukrainian Troops.
The only reason we can tell the date on this video is because we know who War Gonzo is. Technically speaking, Semen Pegov is one of our peers in the independent conflict reporting space. As such, we follow his personal activities pretty closely, which is how we know when this was filmed.
In September, Semon was arrested by Russian police at a hotel for making threats against hotel staff. Prior to that, Semon had been discredited at least ten times for spreading false or sensationalized stories that were crafted to make Russian troops look like they were performing better than they actually were. On several other occasions we also called Semon out on sensationalizing and staging content to that same end. This all culminated in Semon being banned from YouTube for spreading misinformation.
All of that said, we hold no ill-will towards the man himself. At the end of October, Semon Pegov stepped on an anti-personnel mine in the Donetsk region while conducting an embedded patrol with Russian forces. Currently, the extent of his injuries is unknown, as his social media has been dark (to us) for quite some time.
While we're not huge fans of Semon's methods in reporting, we do applaud his camera work. Semon has done independent reporting in a number of active conflicts where Russian troops were present, and has had a very solid career as an independent journalist.
