{"id":25648,"date":"2024-12-12T13:37:33","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T11:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ukrcy.news\/?p=25648"},"modified":"2025-01-21T18:24:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T16:24:07","slug":"facts-to-get-back-on-track-when-conversations-on-russias-war-in-ukraine-derail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ukrcy.news\/2024\/12\/12\/facts-to-get-back-on-track-when-conversations-on-russias-war-in-ukraine-derail\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts to Get Back on Track When Conversations on Russia\u2019s War in Ukraine Derail"},"content":{"rendered":"
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From the average Joe to the famous one\u2014Rogan\u2014Russian propaganda has successfully seeped into both everyday conversations and influential platforms, constructing anti-Ukrainian sentiments using sensationalism to elicit an emotional reaction from people otherwise unfamiliar with Ukraine, its culture, politics, and history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Here, we tackle five common propaganda points with evidence and facts.<\/p>\n

Fallacy 1: Ukraine started the war.<\/b><\/h2>\n

Before Russia\u2019s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, Donbas was conflict-free, separatism was a non-issue, and Ukraine remained a neutral state without a strong inclination to join NATO.<\/p>\n

Leading up to the full-scale invasion in February 2022, the possibility of Ukraine\u2019s accession into NATO was still decades away,\u00a0reports<\/a><\/u>\u00a0the Atlantic Council. Russia\u2019s lukewarm response to Finland and Sweden\u2019s recent NATO membership proves that the war was never about NATO but rather a result of its own colonial aspirations to reinstate the borders of the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

Putin’s war is not the result of NATO enlargement. Putin’s war is the cause of NATO enlargement.<\/p>\n

Lloyd J. Austin, <\/a><\/u>US Secretary of Defense<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Finland and Sweden\u2019s recent\u00a0accession<\/a><\/u>\u00a0to NATO, driven by Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine, underscores that NATO expansion is a response to Russian aggression\u2014not a precursor to it. While Russia claims that it\u2019s becoming encircled by NATO, only\u00a011%<\/a><\/u>\u00a0of Russia\u2019s territory borders a NATO member state, even after Finland\u2019s accession.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Russia, not NATO, that forcefully inserts itself into independent countries. Attempting to conceal its involvement in the east of Ukraine, the Kremlin\u00a0insisted<\/a><\/u>\u00a0for years that \u201cself-organized \u2018separatist\u2019 groups in eastern Ukraine were responsible for the aggression\u201d\u2014despite a lack of evidence to support this narrative. Following the occupation of Crimea, Moscow bussed in Russian citizens to\u00a0organize<\/a><\/u>\u00a0and fuel small but public anti-West pro-Russian rallies that, consequently, began popping up in the south and east of the country, further fomenting the myth of separatism.<\/p>\n

Following this, masked men stormed many of the government buildings in Donetsk and Luhansk regions and, in May 2014, announced the so-called \u201cDonetsk People\u2019s Republic\u201d and \u201cLuhansk People\u2019s Republic\u201d\u2014neither of which are recognized by Ukraine or the international community, notwithstanding Russia\u2019s\u00a0allies<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

In response to Russia\u2019s brazen breach of international law and Ukraine\u2019s territorial integrity, Ukraine countered the Russian forces overtaking Donbas with the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO). The Ukrainian ATO directly targeted invading Russian forces, never civilians.<\/p>\n

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\"Debunking<\/picture><\/div>\n
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Read more<\/div>\n
Debunking Russia\u2019s Myths about the People of Donbas<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

Fallacy 2: Arming Ukraine is an escalation<\/b><\/h2>\n

This was American podcaster Joe Rogan\u2019s overarching message on his November 22nd episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience\u201d podcast. Rogan, known for his\u00a0controversial<\/a><\/u>\u00a0takes rooted in disinformation, currently\u00a0ranks<\/a><\/u>\u00a03rd on Apple Podcasts. In the episode, he said, \u201cYou fucking people [Ukrainians] are about to start world war three,\u201d by striking back into Russia with American weapons and claimed that the Russian war in Ukraine was a proxy war\u2014a common Kremlin talking point that frequently defers to the manufactured (non)issue of NATO encroachment and \u201cbio-labs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ukrainians\u2014from heavyweight boxing\u00a0champion<\/a><\/u>\u00a0Volodymyr Klitschko to former Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba\u2014had something to\u00a0say<\/a>\u00a0in response to Rogan\u2019s Moscow propaganda.<\/p>\n

Denigrating Ukrainians without giving them a chance to respond isn\u2019t just unfair\u2014it\u2019s emblematic of a larger issue: the persistent tendency to discuss Ukraine without involving Ukrainians.<\/p>\n

Dmytro Kuleba, <\/a>Former Foreign Affairs Minister of Ukraine<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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