The Rai Information 24 journalist lately interviewed a Ukrainian serviceman who was sporting SS insignia
The Italian journalist who lately interviewed a Ukrainian soldier sporting Nazi insignia has apologized.
Ilario Piagnerelli, a reporter with the Italian state broadcaster Rai Information 24, stated he “deeply regrets” the interview however referred to as the uproar on social media a device of pro-Russian propaganda.
In an extract from a report circulating on-line, Piagnerelli could be seen speaking to a person sporting a khaki cap adorned with the insignia of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ SS division, a unit that was convicted of battle crimes by the Nuremberg Tribunal following World Struggle II. The video is watermarked ‘Rai Information 24’. As of Monday morning, nevertheless, the footage was now not seen on Piagnerelli’s X account.
Sono cresciuto con un nonno partigiano, di quelli veri, che oggi non avrebbero dubbi nel distinguere tra invaso e invasore, tra chi resiste e chi occupa. Sono stato educato ai valori della Costituzione.Mi rammarico profondamente di aver dato voce, anche se per pochi secondi, a… pic.twitter.com/lBhBTtlax6
— Ilario Piagnerelli (@ilario82) August 19, 2024
“I deeply remorse having given voice, even when just for a couple of seconds, to a Ukrainian soldier who I solely seen sporting a patch with a Nazi image after the report aired,” Piagnerelli wrote on X on Monday.
“I grew up with a partisan grandfather, one of many actual ones, who right this moment would haven’t any doubts in distinguishing between invader and invaded, between those that resist and people who occupy. I used to be educated within the values of the Structure.”
Piagnerelli additional talked about an alleged “community of pro-invasion profiles linked to Moscow in Italy, which dedicates its sources to discrediting my work and that of different correspondents. They fake to be shocked, however they’ve present in that picture a formidable argument for anti-Ukrainian propaganda,” the reporter argued.
Russian International Ministry has accused Rai Information 24 of “sinking to a brand new low,” with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying that “the Western media proceed to interact within the deliberate rehabilitation of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and a revision of the Nuremberg Tribunal verdicts.”
Piagnerelli had already “distinguished himself with tales about Bucha and a lifeless neo-Nazi from Pravy Sektor [Right Sector],” Zakharova claimed, however has now “sunk to new depths …”
“It’s attainable that subsequent time Piagnerelli will movie a Ukronazi with the symbols of the SS division ‘Reichsfuhrer SS,’” Zakharova said, referring to a unit infamous for finishing up what’s claimed to be the worst World Struggle II bloodbath in Western Europe.
Over the weekend, RAI recalled two of its reporters again to Italy after Moscow launched a prison probe into their unlawful presence in Russia’s Kursk Area. On Wednesday, the broadcaster aired a TV report on the Ukrainian cross-border assault into the area through which a crew of journalists embedded with Kiev’s forces drove deep into Russian territory.
