During the visit of a peace mission of leaders from several African countries, Russian troops attacked Kyiv with 12 cruise and aerial ballistic missiles. Initially, Russian propagandists and ordinary citizens of the aggressor state were frantically rejoicing at the attack and demanding that the centre of Kyiv and Bankova Street, where the Office of the President of Ukraine is located, be hit.

However, Russian propagandists quickly changed their position and began accusing Ukraine of "staging" the attack. OBOZREVATEL analysed how the propaganda "methodology" changed.

For example, immediately after the information about the missile attack on Kyiv emerged, Russian propagandists happily reposted a map of Ukraine with marks where air raid warnings were sounded, and also wrote posts about Russia's decision that "no guests will come to Kyiv".

"Massive attack. A combo of cruise and ballistic missiles, according to the monitoring channels. I think that today is the day when we finally decided that no more guests will come to Ukraine!" - wrote one of the propagandists.

Ordinary Russians did not lag behind the "war heralds". They called for strikes on Bankova Street and were well aware that the attack was taking place during the visit of an African delegation that had come to Ukraine to persuade Ukraine to sit down with Russia.

"F*ck Kyiv with missiles", "And now the president of South Africa is in Kyiv", "Salute to guests from South Africa", "It made me feel so happy!", "Kh*khly, hide!", "Work, brothers! 333 (an informal command for artillery volley fire used by Russian artillerymen. - )", "Let's hit Bankova more often and harder", "It's about time", "Kh*khly, what's with the face, jump around, maybe it will pass", - Russians wrote in comments in Russian propaganda publics.

However, after it became known that all the missiles, including the vaunted "hyperballistic" Kinzhals, had been shot down, the tone of Russian propagandists' posts changed dramatically. They turned 180 degrees and began to spread a new narrative: that Kyiv had staged the attack to frighten members of the African delegation and "quarrel" Russia with its African "allies".

Thus, one of the popular propaganda channels called the missile attack on Kyiv a "fake" and a "show".

"Our subscribers from Kyiv (yes, we have them, and we hug them) report that this morning's missile attack on Kyiv is a fake. A show for a delegation from South Africa. According to the locals, all they saw was the launching of South African missiles into the air. There were no overflights, let alone arrivals of Russian missiles. They add that a similar thing had already happened during German Chancellor Scholz's visit to Kyiv, when a frightened official was hidden in a bomb shelter," the propagandists said.

They also mentioned that an African delegation was in Ukraine during the "fake attack".

"For your information, a delegation from South Africa arrived in Kyiv today on an official visit. And the air raid in the capital of Ukraine began just as the official programme of the guests started," the propagandists wrote.

Another pro-war Russian publicist developed the thesis and claimed that Ukrainian air defence systems, out of fright and panic, began firing missiles "for no reason".

The propagandists argue that they were not provided with evidence of the downed Kinzhals, which, according to the Russians, the Ukrainian military should have done immediately after the attack.

"Sceptical users and experts immediately suspected that the Ukrainian authorities were once again putting on a show. Moreover, today the president of Russia's allied South Africa visited Kyiv. Indeed, why would the Russian army threaten the life of an ally? Suddenly, another Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that didn't work will fall on him. And the footage circulating on Telegram also looks peculiar - 12 traces of anti-missile launches and no results. Sporadic reports of explosions in one of Kyiv's districts are also unconfirmed," assure the authors of the Z-public, who seem not to have read the posts full of "scepticism" of their "colleagues".

They also began to dispute the version with the "staging".

"In the past, foreign leaders visiting Kyiv were 'scared' by simply sounding the air raid siren and taking them to a shelter. In addition, the launch of 12 PAC-3 missiles would have cost tens of millions of dollars. Given the catastrophic shortage of anti-missiles, wasting ammunition does not seem very justified, even for the sake of winning the sympathy of the South African leader. And most importantly, at the time of the attack, the South African president was watching another "performance" - he was being given another tour of Bucha, meaning he could not physically observe the "heroic work of the working air defence system", the propagandists cynically claimed.

Then they came to a completely unexpected conclusion: The Ukrainian Armed Forces were simply frightened and panicked.

"Suddenly, but it could simply be a mistake on the part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces: they could have misidentified the target, panicked, and launched a mass of anti-missiles to intercept it. I immediately recall how the enemy unsuccessfully tried to shoot down the Kinzhal at the last minute by launching 32 anti-missiles at once. Sometimes, after all, we are not faced with "insidious plans of the CIPsO", but with the enemy's usual unprofessionalism," the propagandists tried to convince the Russians.

And the supporters of the war, who had been rejoicing earlier, suddenly began to "doubt" that the attack had taken place. The same propagandist who had earlier "banned" foreign delegations from visiting Kyiv began to hint that the Ukrainian military had allegedly shelled their own settlements.

As reported earlier, during the visit of a delegation from Africa to Kyiv, Russia attacked Kyiv region with missiles. The air defence forces shot down 6 Kalibr cruise missiles and the same number of Kinzhal aerial ballistic missiles. African leaders, who had arrived to convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of the need for negotiations with Russia, waited out the alarm in a bomb shelter.

The delegation from the African continent, in addition to the president of South Africa, mentioned by Russian propagandists, also included the presidents of Zambia, Senegal, Comoros (whose president heads the African Union), the prime minister of Egypt, and the foreign minister of Uganda. These "allies of the Russian Federation" were ignored by Russian propaganda.

In the Kyiv region, the falling debris of downed missiles damaged houses and injured four civilians, including two children.

Only verified information is available in our Obozrevatel Telegram channel and Viber. Do not fall for fakes!