Online Public Relations Thoughts

The mayor of Mariupol, Ukraine, is saying the Russians have killed 10,000 citizens of the city and were cremating them to dispose of evidence.  There is no way of knowing whether the statement is accurate or a number picked out of the air to gain more support from NATO and the EU.  It could be propaganda and probably is. Counting the dead takes time and care, neither of which the town's leaders have while under constant assault.  There is concrete evidence of hundreds who have lost their lives to bombs, rockets and artillery.  That should be enough to sustain the outrage against Putin's military without exaggeration.  Both sides are using propaganda to support their cause, but the Russians are worse.  They have admitted no impartial observers to their ranks.  Ukraine has done so and reporters from the world over are in the country taking testimony from survivors and walking the battlefields.  That is why it is hard to believe anything the Russians claim and easier to accept the words of Ukraine leaders.