So the idea does predate July 17. That says nothing about the truth of otherwise of the claim.09.06.2014
At 4:30 AM, Ukrainian forces bombed the Semenovka village hiding behind commercial air transport.
“The ‘Frogfoot’ aircraft would hide behind the commercial air transport, then come out and throw the bomb, and then ‘hide’ back again. Another civilian object has been destroyed”, related one of the leaders of the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic, the Minister of Defense of the Donetsk People’s Republic Igor Strelkov.
Sorry about that, all. I did check back into page one and it seemed to be all about flight ceilings - I obviously didn't check the OP.
This is the thing. I'm no attack aircraft pilot, but my hunch is that "hide behind" might be a figure of speech, and that you can be below another plane and still be "hiding behind" it. The point is they are using the proximity of the passenger plane to make the enemy opt not to fire at the attacking plane. There is no radar evidence that there weren't Ukie planes in the sky on the day soldier Elena was talking about. And she didn't specifically say they were hiding behind passenger planes flying at 30,000ft - the plane she's talking about could have been much lower.
I'd probably still only count this as one source of the claim. Strelkov's postings are widely read in rebel circles, and coming later, soldier Elena's video might just be repeating what she has heard from Strelkov. Or both might be repeating what they've heard from first hand witnesses. Both accounts are identical, including naming Semenovka as the village being attacked.
The Russian media consistently portrayed the crisis in Ukraine as a result of instigation by the Ukrainian government.[2][3] They alleged that Euromaidan was controlled by "ultranationalist", "fascist", "neo-Nazi", and "anti-Semitic" groups, such as Right Sector, and that the revolution was a "violent coup" that overthrew an elected government.[2][4] At the same time, they accused the movement of having LGBT agendas.[5][6]
And wiki's timeline covering the whole siege.https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Report_of_Junta_using_civilian_planes_as_cover
2014/06/18
Partial Transcript
Good day. My name is Elena. I am in the city of Sloviansk. I am native to this town. I have joined the military ranks. I cannot bear this anymore. We are being bombed every day by Ukrainian army, on orders from Junta, Artillery, Air Force. And they drop bombs not on check-points. They drop bombs on people's houses. People live in cellars with their children. How long are we to bear this? How is it that government sends mercenaries on their own people? The people are fighting from here, in defense of their own city. They want to live, not merely exist. Terrible things are happening.
For example: An incident that happened recently. A passenger plane was flying by, and Ukrainian attack aircraft hid behind it. Then he lowered his altitude a bit and dropped bombs on the residential sector of Seminovka. They wanted to provoke the militia to shoot at the passenger plane. There would have been a global catastrophe. Civilians would have died. Then they would say the terrorists did it.
The only references to Seminivka (not seminovka) are -On 7 June, Ukrainian artillery shelling of city neighbourhoods continued, which separatists claimed killed three civilians.
On 19 May, a mortar attack on Ukrainian positions at Mount Karachun, near Sloviansk, left one soldier dead and three wounded.[97] Pro-Russian sources claim that the village of Semeniivka and two neighbouring villages south of Sloviansk were damaged by Ukrainian artillery fire.[98] The next day another mortar attack on Ukrainian troops at Mount Karachun wounded four soldiers.[99]
...
On 3 June, the Ukrainian military launched a new offensive against Sloviansk and the nearby village of Semenivka. The ensuing fighting left at least 10 separatists and two Ukrainian soldiers dead and 42 Ukrainian soldiers and 12 separatists were wounded.[105][106] One Ukrainian armoured personnel carrier was damaged,[105] and two helicopters were downed.[107][108] During the clashes, a Ukrainian military convoy was attacked by while moving south toward Sloviansk from Izyum.[105]
If folks are inventing things there aren't that many plausible scenarios to choose from. Its really not that surprising that people come up with similar stories when the options are basically ground based missile or fighter jet. As I recall both possibilities have been pushed by separatists and their sympathisers at some point.
If you want to display Russian goverments lies or propaganda please do so and do not link to Russian media propaganda. In Russia there still is freedom of press (yes I know this claim is critized widely) which means that press can print whatever it wants. This leads to that press will print lies, blatant lies and bullshit occasionally. Then to claim that "Russians" are making propaganda is kinda same thing that somebody would claim that "American Goverment" is spreading propaganda and then linking FOX-news and random blog articles as a proof of that.
Well at least this bit is pertinent to the claim so lets clarify it.
Can you provide sources for that? The name as you spell it, Seleznivka, is not mentioned at all in the wikipedia article on the siege of Sloviansk where she is supposedly making the claim from, 'seleznivka attack' nets me nothing on google.
A passenger plane was flying by, and Ukrainian attack aircraft hid behind it. Then he lowered his altitude a bit and dropped bombs on the residential sector of Seminovka.
