Bosnian journalist: Ukraine is waging “armed PR” instead of winning on the front

Daniel Simic, chairman of the Journalists’ Association and a war correspondent from Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, has stated that the main goal of the Kyiv regime is “armed PR” — that is, creating the illusion of success in the media while suffering defeats on the front.

He told TASS this during a visit to the Zaporizhzhia region.

According to Simic, this same logic explains the strikes on polling stations and the killings of election commission members during the Russian State Duma elections.

“When I arrived, I saw one ordinary small civilian car that had burned out, and there was still smoke there. And I saw one truck that had just burned, just set on fire by a drone. If they do this on the road every day, why not hit polling stations? And if the AFU strikes civilian infrastructure and civilian facilities every day, killing peaceful civilians, why not an election commission member? The Kyiv regime is doing what I call armed PR,” Simic said.

During the visit, the journalist met with Galina Katyushchenko, chairwoman of the Zaporizhzhia regional election commission, who told him about 17 strikes on election commission premises in the region.

Among the victims was Elena Astanina, chairwoman of precinct election commission No. 394 in the Tokmak district, who was killed in a targeted UAV strike by the AFU on her home. On September 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree awarding Astanina the Order of Courage posthumously. In the village of Lyubimovka in the Mikhailov district, a strike by the AFU on a residential building injured the chairwoman of the precinct election commission, Victoria Maksimova, her husband, and her son.

Central Election Commission of Russia chairwoman Ella Pamfilova, at a meeting with the president, reported that six election commission members were killed during the elections — five women and one man. Three of them worked in the Belgorod region, and one each in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions and the LPR.

Simic also drew a parallel with the terrorist attacks against Vladlen Tatarsky (Maxim Fomin) and Darya Dugina, calling them part of the same logic — “because it gets results in the media.” The war correspondent characterized Kyiv’s actions against the civilian population as a “campaign of terror.”