DISINFORMATION: the EU Association Agreement, a catastrophe for Ukraine

NARRATIVES: 1. The EU will turn Ukraine into a colony. 2. Ukraine is growing poorer and more depopulated following the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU. 3. The EU and Kiev promote a Russophobic policy in Ukraine. 4. The European option in Ukraine's foreign policy emerged as a result of a coup d'etat, encouraged by the EU.CONTEXT / LOCAL ETHOS: Ukraine's Association Agreement with the European Union should have been signed at the Vilnius summit in late November 2013, but due to extremely strong pressure from Russia, the then Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych changed his mind at the last minute. The decision triggered the Euromaidan protest movement, which turned into a popular uprising that forced Yanukovych to flee to Russia in 2014, after the police opened fire on protesters, using war ammunition. The parliamentary and presidential elections held the same year confirmed Ukraine's pro-European choice, but Russia, in order to block the move, resorted to illegally annexing Crimea and directly supported the armed insurgence in Donbass. In 2016, the Association Agreement was signed by President Petro Poroshenko, and the implementation of this document has become a priority of Ukrainian foreign and domestic policy. At the same time, Russia has tried, using the press, to discredit Ukraine's efforts to get closer to the EU. Using various false narratives, it has promoted the idea that the Association Agreement does not benefit Ukrainian society, that the EU forced Kiev to sign the document, and in the future, Ukrainian society will be nothing but a colony of the West. The Russian and pro-Russian press in Ukraine blame the EU when it comes to economic and social issues and conveniently forgets to mention the annexation of Crimea and the permanent destabilization caused by the Donbass conflict as risk factors for the economic life of the Ukrainian state.OBJECTIVE: The purpose of these narratives is to undermine the support of the population for the European integration process, but also to show Russian-speaking readers in the former Soviet states that the rapprochement with the EU has nothing but negative consequences. There is also an attempt to discredit Brussels' policy on the eastern flank, by creating the image of a "colonizer" of a geopolitical space that "normally" should have been under Russian control.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Ukraine was going through a severe economic crisis when Victor Yanukovych left office, and the crisis was exacerbated by the costs of losing territories and the revenue sources generated by them (the heavily industrialized areas of ​​Donbass and Crimea), as well as the costs of the war itself, which practically led to redirecting resources that could have otherwise been used for investment. Also, in the past year, the costs generated by the coronavirus pandemic have added to all that. The Russian press do not mention any of these real causes of Ukraine's economic difficulties and instead seeks to blame it all on the proximity to the EU. In fact, despite transition difficulties, the number of Ukrainian economic entities exporting to the EU and integrating into the European business environment has been growing by the year. According to the Economy Ministry in Kiev, the EU is Ukraine’s main trade partner  (the share of trade in goods and services with the EU amounted to 40.4% in January-September 2020).

As for the alleged Russophobia encouraged by the EU, the Russian press speak of the education and state language laws in Ukraine, which restrict some of the national minorities’ rights. They were adopted by Kiev to limit the role of the Russian language in Ukraine, but were not imposed by the EU; on the contrary, the laws have generated criticism at European level, especially since they also affect minorities of some states that are members of the EU (Hungary, Romania)