Two Russian regional TV channels at the time showed in the evening of April 12 the stories about NATO troops invasion of the territory of Belarus from Ukraine's territory. "Today, Lipetsk military men evacuated the residents of Ukraine. They declared martial law. NATO countries are on the offensive against Belarus from the territory of Ukraine ", "Lipetsk Time" TV broadcaster informed.
As mentioned in TV story, «the plane with the refugees landed at Lipetsk airfield», Kommersant reports. The similar reportage was aired on another Lipetsk TV broadcaster, TVK.
Only later, the journalists told that the stories dealt with the war games of Russian Interior Ministry troops, and «armed conflict» is the legend of military maneuvers.
The author of the story, aired on TVK channel, Oksana Korabelnikova said that the legend of exercises (Ukraine attacks Belarus), was told to her and other reporters, who had gathered at the airfield, by deputy commander of the central regional command of internal troops of Russian Interior Ministry, Major-General, Nikolai Ryabchikov . According to the correspondent, «there was a conversation with the camera turned off», and she recorded the words of General in a notebook.
The head of Press Bureau of Russian Interior Ministry troops, Colonel, Vasily Panchenkov, commenting these TV stories, stated that while preparing them, the journalists «saw or heard something wrong».
As explained the representative of Russian interior troops, who did not disprove the legend of the exercises, «today we say something, and tomorrow we’ll have a diplomatic note, let’s leave our brothers in peace, we’ve just begun to build relationships with them». «It is quite natural that the exercises are impacted by the fact that some regions, in which exercises are conducted, bordering the neighboring countries», the Colonel added.
A source at Russian Interior Troops, in his turn, has already stated that «they’ve already had explanatory work with the chiefs, who commented the maneuvers, now, they will not say such things». «Apparently, they did not think about the consequences of their words or simply wanted to spend their time in front of the cameras», he suggested.
