President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen got into an embarrassing situation on Wednesday, which was related to a mistake in his speech and the subsequent editing of the video of it.
Von der Leyen posted on Twitter as well on the Commission’s website (you will go to another service) a short speech recorded the day before, in which he demanded Russia to account for war crimes in Ukraine.
The message of the speech was drowned out by the error in the video and its explanation.
– Russia’s attack on Ukraine has caused death, destruction and indescribable suffering. We all remember the horrors of Butsa, von der Leyen said in his speech.
At this point in the video, there is an obvious cut before von der Leyen continues:
– Russia must pay for its terrible crimes, including attacking an independent state.
In his original speech, von der Leyen said in between:
– It is estimated that more than 20,000 civilians and more than 100,000 soldiers of the Ukrainian army have died so far.
The originally published video was edited after Ukraine raised the issue.
Spokesman of the Office of the President of Ukraine Serhii Nykyforov commented the country’s public broadcaster For Suspilne (you switch to another service)that the losses suffered by Ukraine are sensitive information and only the commander of the armed forces, the minister of defense or the president can tell about them.
The spokesman for the armed forces said the same Bohdan Senykwho declined to confirm the figures For Ukrainska Pravda (you will switch to another service).
Spokesperson for the European Commission Dana Spinant would correct the error on Twitter. According to him, the numbers obtained from “external sources” were meant to refer to both dead and wounded – so not just casualties, even though von der Leyen said so in the beginning.
In English, the word casualty can be used to describe both dead and wounded, which can sometimes lead to confusion.
In his English speech, Von der Leyen also used the slightly atypical expression military officers, which, when translated directly into Finnish, would refer to army officers. However, he has been interpreted to mean soldiers in general.
For example, the expression police officer can be used in English for any police officer, regardless of rank.
Ukraine and Russia keep losses under control
The estimate of 100,000 dead and wounded Ukrainian soldiers is the same as, for example, the commander of the US Armed Forces Mark Milley presented at the beginning of November (you will switch to another service).
Milley said that more than 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded in Ukraine, and that the losses in Ukraine are likely to be the same.
The numbers are estimates that cannot be confirmed. Both Ukraine and Russia are very tight-lipped about their own losses and have reported much lower numbers than this.
Also, it has not been confirmed that as many civilians died in the war as von der Leyen said in the original video.
For example, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) according to this week’s information (you will switch to another service) A total of 17,023 civilians have been killed and wounded in Ukraine.
OHCHR says the actual number of dead and wounded civilians is likely to be much higher, but this has not been confirmed.
Russia’s propaganda victory was small
– Embarrassing failure of communication, sums up the research doctor of the case Teemu Oivo from the University of Eastern Finland.
Oivo, who is familiar with the Russian media, says that the matter has been mentioned to some extent in the Russian media, but it has not reached the main news.
The Russian forces in Ukraine were able to say in an interview on Russian television that the number of dead Ukrainian soldiers announced by von der Leyen sounds credible to them.
Russian state news agencies have reported on the subject and through them the issue has also spread to smaller media.
According to Oivo, some commentators have pushed the story that the West is pushing Ukrainians into cannon fodder. Also on the social media side, vague user accounts have spoiled the matter.
Both Russia and Ukraine prefer to talk about the other side’s losses rather than their own. However, Russia has not received such a great propaganda victory from von der Leyen’s speech, as one might assume.
– Defeats are a sensitive spot for Russia as well. If too much attention is paid to Ukraine’s losses, there is a risk that Russians’ own losses will also come to mind and discussions. It’s a double-edged sword, says Oivo.
“Clumsy rescue attempt”
The editing of Von der Leyen’s speech afterwards caused the error to have received much more attention in Western countries than it would have otherwise, Oivo estimates.
– If something is said in the current media environment, it can no longer be taken back. It’s special that we started cutting these video clips. It did not delete the original message, but on the contrary increased its visibility.
Videos showing von der Leyen’s cut and uncut speech side by side are now widely circulating on Twitter.
Instead, according to Oivo, what was necessary and functional was for the Commission’s spokesperson Spinant to correct the factual error in the original video.
Oivo says that some Russian media have also reported that Spinanti specified that the number referred to both the number of fallen and wounded.
– Even though the rescue attempt was horribly clumsy, the correction has gone through somewhat on the Russian side as well. In itself, the correction was not as hopeless as one might have imagined.
Sources: Reuters, AFP