BBC defends 'unverified' report Russian troops killed 250 Ukrainians

The BBC has defended its reporting on the Ukraine war after an MP criticised its news site for running an unverified story claiming the Russian army had killed 250 Ukrainian troops in Donetsk.

Chris Bryant, MP for the Rhondda constituency in Wales, tweeted BBC News about its latest coverage of the war in Ukraine, saying: "Dear @BBCNews why would you lead with this unverified report from a notoriously dubious source?"

Bryant's post came after the news channel ran a front-page story on its website quoting Russia's defence ministry which said Ukraine had launched a "large-scale offensive" in the Donetsk region on Sunday using six mechanised and two tank battalions.

It claimed the Ukrainians attacked Russian defences but that it "did not achieve its tasks, it had no success".

Video footage of what Russia says was the battle appears to show military vehicles coming under heavy fire in fields.

Russia claims 250 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and 16 armoured vehicles destroyed.

The BBC article stated that Russia's claim had not been independently verified.

BBC News did not respond to Bryant's tweet publicly, but a spokesperson told Yahoo News: "The article makes it clear that this is a Russian claim and not verified.

"The claims of both sides in a war are reported on and clearly identified as such, along with independent, verified information and first-hand accounts.”

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On Monday, a military spokesperson for Ukraine said the army had no information about a major offensive in Donetsk.

He said: "We do not have such information and we do not comment on any kind of fake."

Russia has been widely accused of pushing disinformation as part of its war strategy.

The British Ministry of Defence warned in April of the dangers of accepting unreliable news reports from Russia. It said: "One component of Russia’s disinformation is ‘narrative laundering’, whereby Russia promotes information from proxies, or unverified social media sources, which then permeates to more mainstream or state-run media."

And in March a statement from the MoD said that Vladimir Putin was "deliberately trying to disinform" the West with fake news.

On 15 February last year, Russia claimed to have started a partial drawdown of troops from the Ukraine border. James Heappey, the armed forces minister, warned at the time the statement was part of a "disinformation campaign". Putin launch his invasion just a week later.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) also states that "systematic information manipulation and disinformation have been applied by the Russian government as an operational tool in its assault on Ukraine".