Debunking false narratives about Ukraine and Russia’s war against it

4 Червня, 2024UKRCY.NEWS (ENG), Новини

Russian propaganda disseminates a lot of narratives about Ukraine that are favourable to it and portray Ukraine in a rather bad light. Russia is especially active spreading false narratives ahead of the EU elections, trying to mislead the voters and make them favour pro-Russian candidates. We will now debunk the most important theses of the Russians, why this is not the case, citing authoritative sources.

Fake narrative №1:

“Delivering weapons to Ukraine escalates tensions with Russia, it will eventually drag Europe into the war.”

The opposite is true: Supporting Ukraine with arms deliveries contributes to deterring Russia from aggressive actions against neighbouring countries, the EU and NATO. As was pointed out by Claudia Major of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, “The prospect of a long war of attrition or a Russian victory should worry us just as much, if not more, than Putin’s possible reaction. Putin could then learn the lesson that war is worthwhile, that the West does not seriously defend itself and that (nuclear) blackmail is successful.” French president Emmanuel Macron declared that “If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighbouring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?”.

Putin sees the former Soviet Union countries and particularly areas where Russian speakers live as part of the “Russian world”, in which Moscow has a right to intervene to protect Russian speakers. In fact, Russian aggression against Moldova is already underway. As pointed out by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian media, the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign minister himself, and the Transnistrian separatist Regime (a Russian proxy) have already made statements analogous to those made to justify the war against Ukraine, namely that Russian speakers need protection from Moscow against discrimination and human rights violations, and that the Moldovan government is a puppet of the US and the EU. The motives appear to be analogous as well: “The Kremlin sees Moldova’s EU candidacy status as unacceptable, just as it saw Ukraine’s association agreement with the EU in 2014 as unacceptable.” Russia also directly undermines the Moldovan government by openly supporting anti-EU and anti-Western propaganda efforts from a Pro-Russian Moldovan fugitive oligarch, Ilan Shor.

Similarly, Putin has threatened the Baltic countries over their policies towards the Russian minority as well as the destruction of Soviet-era monuments. The Kremlin represents the latter as indicating a return of Nazism, another pattern familiar from its anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Central Asian countries like Kazakhstan (hosting a large Russian minority, especially in the north) are now observing Moscow’s behaviour with concern. Since Russia is a threat not just to Ukraine, it is noteworthy that a successful defence of Ukraine lengthens the time that NATO allies have left to rebuild their own armed forces to protect themselves against further Russian aggression and hybrid threats (cyberattacks, foreign interference and manipulation of information).

Source Promote Ukraine

Теги: #UkraineFactCheck #EUelections2024