Russian military find participants of chemical weapons provocation in Douma

The Russian defense ministry has numerous proofs that on April 7 there was a staged provocation in Douma aimed at misleading the global community. Its true goal is evident to everyone now: to provoke the USA to deliver missile strikes upon Syria, Russian defense ministry’s spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov has announced.

“I need to remind that the key ‘proof’ for those allegations from Western countries is a video shot at a hospital in Douma where local residents suffering from consequences of the chemical attack were allegedly delivered,” Konashenkov said.

“However, we managed to find people shown in the video and interview them. Today, we are releasing the interviews. Douma residents have said in detail how the staged shooting was organized, in what episodes they participated and what they were doing. Moreover, they indicated the episodes with their participance in the video. Both participants have medical education and work at the emergency rescue in Douma hospital. According to the Syrians, all people taken to the hospital had no signs of being poisoned by nerve agents,” the defense ministry’s spokesman continued.

He explained that when the patients were given the first aid, unknown people rushed into the hospital. “Some of them had video cameras. They started shouting, stirring panics and pouring water on people and screaming that all the people indoors were suffering from poisoning. The patients at the emergency room and their relatives started pouring water on each other. After all this was shot on video, the unknown people rushed away. You can see that the Syrians show themselves in the video,” he noted.

“I would like to pay your attention that the people do not conceal their names,” Konashenkov said. “These are not some anonymous statements in social networks or statements of anonymous activists. I stress it once again: these are the people who were directly involved in shooting those videos. These are the facts that are considered proofs in a civilized world, but not unfounded and irresponsive accusations distributed with the aim to pin labels and slandering leadership of other countries,” he added.

He announced that the Russian military command has other proofs that Great Britain participated in staging the provocation in Eastern Ghouta. “We know for certain that from April 3 to 6 London exerted pressure upon the so-called White Helmets for soonest implementation of the provocation. The White Helmets were told that from April 3 to 6 militants of Jaysh al-Islam will deliver a series of artillery shelling against Damascus, this was expected to cause response from the government troops and the White Helmets were supposed to use it to stage the provocation with alleged chemical weapons,” he said.

“As you might know, today, a group of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are to arrive in Syria. The Russian Center for Reconciliation is ready to provide their security and conditions for working in Eastern Ghouta. We hope that the OPCW mission will derive not from imposed statements of third parties or anonymous fabricated evidence from social networks, but will conduct an objective and independent investigation to find the truth. We believe that a responsible position of the OPCW will allow decreasing the tension in the region and preserve the fragile peace in Syria,” Konashenkov concluded.

He also drew attention to the humanitarian disaster in Raqqa that was liberated by the USA and the so-called International Coalition. Thousands of dead bodies are festering under the debris of the city. Residents of Raqqa have no access to humanitarian aid as there are no missions of international organizations there and the local administrations are incapable of improving the situation.