In “memory of children – victims of the war in Donbass”: in Bethlehem, white balloons, candles, and paper cranes – how the “Russian House” covers Russian propaganda with “memory of children”

In the “Russian House in Bethlehem,” they folded paper cranes, watched a Russian film, and released white balloons in memory of the children of Donbas. Behind the touching picture lies the state propaganda of the country that brought war to Ukraine in 2014 and then turned the deceased children into a tool of its own justification.

Paper cranes without naming the culprit

On the official page of the Russian House in Bethlehem on July 20, 2026, a publication appeared about an “event” in memory of the “children – victims of the war in Donbas.”

Participants were invited to make paper cranes, watch a documentary film, honor the deceased with a minute of silence, and release white balloons into the sky. The organizers were the “Russian House” and the “Bethlehem Branch of the Society of Russian Compatriots Living in ‘Palestine’.” The message was distributed in Russian and Arabic.

The form of the event was flawlessly constructed from an emotional point of view: children, candles, cranes, white color, words about peace, hope, and the protection of childhood.

However, the message did not name the film shown, did not specify which events were discussed, did not provide independent data on the deceased, and completely excluded the historical context of the war.

Russia in this picture is nowhere presented as a party to the conflict. The war is presented almost as a natural disaster that came to Donbas from nowhere and started killing children.

This is exactly how modern propaganda works. It does not always require shouting slogans and waving flags. Sometimes it is enough to evoke a strong emotion in a person and then remove the causes, dates, and culprits from history.

The war did not start in 2022

The publication of the Russian House deliberately omits the main part of the story: the war did not start on February 24, 2022, and did not arise spontaneously inside Donbas.

It began in February 2014, when Russia took advantage of the political crisis after the Revolution of Dignity, deployed unmarked military personnel in Ukrainian Crimea, and established de facto control over the peninsula.

On February 27, 2014, armed men seized the buildings of the Crimean parliament and government. Subsequently, Russia conducted a so-called referendum under the control of its military and declared the Ukrainian peninsula part of the Russian Federation.

On March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly confirmed the territorial integrity of Ukraine and stated that the vote held in Crimea had no legal force and could not change the status of the peninsula. The resolution was supported by 100 countries.

After the capture of Crimea, Russian intervention spread to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

In the spring of 2014, armed pro-Russian groups began seizing administrative buildings, police stations, and weapons depots. The so-called “DPR” and “LPR” were proclaimed, whose existence was ensured by Russian military, political, financial, and material support.

The European Court of Human Rights established that Russia exercised “effective control” over territories held by formations under its control, at least since May 11, 2014. The basis was the Russian military presence and decisive influence of Moscow, ensured by military, economic, and political support.

In a decision dated July 9, 2025, the European Court held Russia responsible for systemic and large-scale human rights violations related to the conflict in Ukraine since 2014.

Why Moscow needed Donbas

The goal of Russian intervention is traced from the sequence of Kremlin’s actions.

After the fall of the pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych, Ukraine accelerated its movement towards the European Union and began to finally exit the Russian political sphere. Moscow responded by seizing Crimea and creating a controlled conflict in the east of the country.

Crimea had strategic and military significance, including control over the Black Sea Fleet bases. Donbas became a lever of constant pressure on Kyiv: the armed conflict was supposed to hinder Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration, deplete its resources, and maintain Russia’s ability to influence Ukrainian domestic politics.

This is an analytical conclusion, but it directly corresponds to the nature of Russian actions: occupation of territory, support for armed formations, and years of denial of its own participation while simultaneously supplying controlled structures.

Therefore, the formulation “war in Donbas” without mentioning Russia is already part of the manipulation.

It was not an inexplicable civil war between two equal internal sides. Russia seized part of the territory of a neighboring country, created conditions for an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, and supported forces that controlled certain areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

The death of civilians and children since 2014 was a real tragedy. According to the UN, from April 14, 2014, to January 31, 2022, 3,107 civilian deaths were confirmed, including 102 boys and 50 girls. Taking into account the 298 deaths in the downed MH17 flight, the total number of civilian casualties was at least 3,405 people. More than seven thousand civilians were injured.

These data do not automatically assign responsibility for each individual case to one side. Each shelling, murder, or violation must be considered separately.

But it is impossible to honestly talk about deceased children while simultaneously hiding who brought the war to Ukraine, armed controlled formations, and turned Donbas into a tool of pressure on a neighboring state.

Full-scale continuation of aggression

On February 24, 2022, Russia did not start a separate, unrelated war. It transferred the aggression that began in 2014 into a full-scale phase.

The Russian army invaded Ukraine from the territory of Russia, occupied Crimea, and Belarus. Strikes were made on Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Mariupol, Kherson, and other cities.

In UN reports, the events are directly defined as an armed attack by the Russian Federation on Ukraine.

As of mid-July 2026, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed the death of at least 16,431 civilians, including 803 children, after February 24, 2022. Another 48,613 civilians were injured, including 2,960 children. The actual numbers may be significantly higher, as the UN can only account for verified cases.

In June 2026 alone, at least 293 civilians were killed in Ukraine, and another 1,990 were injured. The overwhelming majority of victims were recorded in territory controlled by Ukraine.

On July 20, UNICEF reported that in just the previous week, two children were killed and at least 50 were injured in attacks in Ukraine. A day earlier, a Russian attack severely damaged a UNICEF warehouse in the Kyiv region and destroyed humanitarian aid intended for children and families affected by the war.

However, this is not mentioned in the publication of the Russian House.

There is no occupation of Crimea. No Russian military intervention in Donbas. No full-scale invasion. No Bucha, Mariupol, and destroyed Ukrainian cities. No Russian missiles and drones. No 803 Ukrainian children whose deaths have already been confirmed by the UN.

There is only a carefully prepared picture: Russia allegedly mourns, Russia allegedly protects children, and the war remains without an author, army, and political decision.

This is not honest memory. This is an attempt by the state that started the war to rewrite its history and hide its own responsibility behind paper cranes, candles, and white balloons.

Russian House is not a neutral cultural center

The name “Russian House” may create the impression of an ordinary public space where language is studied, films are watched, and cultural evenings are held.

But the Russian House in Bethlehem is the official representation of Rossotrudnichestvo – the Russian federal executive body.

The institution’s own website directly calls it the first representation of Rossotrudnichestvo in ‘Palestine’. The head of the center, Timofey Bokov, officially holds the position of head of the Rossotrudnichestvo representation.

Even the address of the center is symbolic: the official contact page states that the Russian House is located in Bethlehem at the corner of Vladimir Putin Square.

Rossotrudnichestvo is not an independent cultural fund. It is a state agency of Russia that manages a network of representations abroad and implements Moscow’s foreign policy tasks.

The European Union included Rossotrudnichestvo in the sanctions list on July 21, 2022.

In the EU’s justification, the agency is called the main state tool of Russian ‘soft power’ and hybrid influence. It is stated that Rossotrudnichestvo finances public diplomacy and propaganda projects, unites pro-Russian structures, spreads Kremlin narratives and historical revisionism, and organizes events aimed at shaping the perception of occupied territories of Ukraine as Russian.

Therefore, the event in Bethlehem is not just a private initiative of people who decided to honor the memory of the deceased.

It is conducted by a platform of a Russian state institution officially associated with promoting the Kremlin’s foreign policy narratives.

Why children are used

The topic of deceased children leaves almost no room for calm discussion. A person who sees photos of candles, paper cranes, and children’s names naturally feels pain and sympathy.

That is why children are especially convenient for propaganda.

First, the audience is shown a real tragedy. Then Russian intervention, occupation, arms supplies, and subsequent invasion are removed from the story. After that, responsibility is quietly shifted only to Ukraine.

At the same time, the name of the documentary film shown in Bethlehem was not disclosed by the organizers. No alternative point of view, data from international organizations, or explanation of what happened in Ukraine since February 2014 was presented.

Viewers were offered not an investigation or historical conversation, but a pre-formed emotional construct.

Russia selected only those deceased children whose memory helps justify Russian policy. Hundreds of children who died after the Russian invasion become invisible in this construct.

NAnews – Israel News emphasizes: the memory of all deceased children deserves respect. But a state that remembers only convenient victims and hides the rest is not preserving memory but politically exploiting it.

Why Bethlehem has special significance for Israel

The location of the event cannot be considered a random detail.

The Russian House is located in Bethlehem – a city in zone A, under the civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority. It is not Israeli territory, although the center uses an Israeli phone code and is only a few kilometers from Jerusalem.

Israeli citizens are prohibited from entering zone A for security reasons. Thus, a Russian state structure operates in a city that is closed to most Israelis.

The relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority cannot be simplified to a complete lack of contact. Limited security coordination remains between the parties, and American reports confirm that Palestinian security structures have cooperated with Israel in some cases to prevent terrorist attacks.

But this does not make the PA a friendly subject to Israel.

Relations remain deeply conflicted and based on mutual distrust. The Israeli side continues to declare incitement in the Palestinian educational and informational environment, corruption, and payments to individuals associated with terrorist activities. In June 2026, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar again stated that the PA talks about reforms but continues payments and the spread of incitement.

In April 2026, an official Israeli representative stated that the country does not consider the current Palestinian Authority a reliable partner due to corruption, weakness, payments to terrorists, and incitement in the educational system.

Against this backdrop, a revealing political construct arises.

In a city under PA control, where Israeli citizens are prohibited from entering, a Russian state structure holds an event in Russian and Arabic. As part of this event, the audience is offered a version of the war favorable to the Kremlin, and Russia is portrayed not as a source of aggression but as a protector of children and peace.

Moscow gains a convenient platform for promoting its narratives among the Palestinian and Arabic-speaking audience. The PA allows the activities of a state that consistently supports Palestinian positions on the international stage while simultaneously engaging in political confrontation with the West.

After this, the prepared content returns through social networks to the Russian-speaking audience in Israel.

Why Israelis should not believe this picture

It is especially alarming to see how such publications are spread without critical verification by people living in Israel.

Israeli society knows well what an information war is. After October 7, Israelis faced daily denial of crimes, selective use of photographs, substitution of causes and effects, and attempts to present terrorists as victims and the defending country as the sole culprit.

But some people, who easily recognize these methods when directed against Israel, somehow stop noticing them in Russian execution.

The Kremlin uses the same scheme:

first, the attack is removed from history;

then the responsibility of the attacking side disappears;

after that, only convenient victims are shown;

finally, the aggressor begins to portray itself as a defender of peace.

A person in Israel who accepts Rossotrudnichestvo’s publications without verification should ask themselves a simple question: why do they not believe the propaganda of Israel’s enemies but are ready to unconditionally believe a Russian state institution?

It is not enough to say that “children also died there.” Yes, they did. That is why it is necessary to honestly tell how the war began, who brought it, and who then expanded it to the scale of the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. The basis was suspicions of illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories.

After this, the attempt by a Russian state structure to present the Kremlin as a protector of childhood looks especially cynical.

When cranes become part of an information operation

White balloons, candles, and paper cranes are not propaganda in themselves.

They become propaganda when they are used to create a false picture of history: hiding the aggressor, removing the causes of the war, and using deceased children to justify the state responsible for its beginning and continuation.

The Russian House in Bethlehem did not tell the audience that Russia seized Crimea in February 2014.

It did not tell about Russian control over armed formations in eastern Ukraine.

It did not tell that on February 24, 2022, the Russian army launched a full-scale offensive.

It did not tell about the 803 Ukrainian children whose deaths after the invasion have already been confirmed by the UN.

Instead of facts, the audience was offered an emotional picture in which Moscow mourns the consequences of the war started by Moscow itself.

NAnews – Israel News considers it important to call things by their names. The Russian House in Bethlehem is not a neutral cultural circle, but an official platform of Rossotrudnichestvo. The event about “children of Donbas” became part of a Russian state campaign aimed simultaneously at Palestinian, Arabic-speaking, and Russian-speaking audiences.

The memory of children cannot be selective.

You cannot remember those who died in Donbas and remain silent about the children of Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Kryvyi Rih, Dnipro, Odesa, and dozens of other Ukrainian cities.

You cannot talk about peace without naming the state that started the aggression in 2014 and turned it into a full-scale war in 2022.

You cannot cover responsibility with white balloons.

This is not a memory of children. This is Russian propaganda that has learned to fold paper cranes.