DISINFORMATION: Ukraine is a Russian territory under foreign occupation that might launch a war against Russia

NARRATIVES: 1. Russia will not attack Ukraine, but Kiev could launch a war against Moscow or Donbas. 2. Ukrainians and Russians are one and the same people; Ukraine is a Russian territory under foreign occupation. 3. The USA and Ukraine will never observe the Minsk peace agreements.

BACKGROUND: In the context of Russia mobilizing its forces on the Ukrainian border and the repeated warnings issued by the international community regarding the risk or a large-scale confrontation triggered by Moscow, news agencies funded by the Russian government have been publishing various analyses and commentaries about the Kremlin’s peaceful intentions and the “absurdity” of Western claims over a planned invasion of Russia’s neighbor. After the West accused Russia of having rallied over 127 thousand troops close to Ukraine’s borders in order to attack this country, and particularly after diplomatic consultations failed in Geneva, Brussels and Vienna, both the Russian media and politicians started denying Moscow’s planned attack. “If it depends on Russia, there will be no war”, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, reacted to the USA’s warnings over the “real possibility” Russia might invade Ukraine in February.

At the same time, the Russian state media continues its aggressive rhetoric by continuing to describe Ukraine as an enemy that poses a threat to Russia’s very existence. Veridica.ro has recently pointed out how the Moscow-linked media is disseminating various false narratives about Ukraine’s Nazism or Kiev’s intentions to expand its territory in the future, with support from the West, once Russia is weakened after losing the geopolitical fight with the USA.

PURPOSE: The purpose of these narratives is to depict Kiev as an aggressor controlled by the USA who refuses to observe the Minsk peace agreements and who can always massacre the Russian-speaking population.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The accusations regarding Kiev’s intentions to trigger a war against Russia lack any solid justification, considering Ukraine’s limited military capabilities, as well as the absence of any logic or political motivation for this military venture. The false narrative about a hypothetical Ukrainian attack on Russia has been analyzed during a press conference by US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. The US official made a comparison to the fox claiming “it had no choice but to attack the hen house because somehow the hens presented a threat to it.”

Veridica has already disproved a series of fake news about the massacre that Ukraine’s territorial defense forces are preparing in Donbas. Media outlets in the Russian Federation and in the self-proclaimed DNR and LNR republics refer to the situation in Donbas not as a conflict that is artificially fueled by Moscow in order to maintain Ukraine in its sphere of influence, but as a genocide organized by Ukraine and the West. These narratives are designed to spread fear against Kiev in order to prevent the retrieval of Donbas and Crimea. The Russian state media makes no mention about these facts, simply stating that Russia will have to defend itself if Ukraine attacks.

Equally false are the narratives about the unity of Russians and Ukrainians, a thesis referenced in an article signed by president Vladimir Putin himself and published on the Kremlin’s website. Arguing about the unity of these two Slavic nations, Putin himself published the article in Ukrainian too, which from the very start proves the two nations are not united by language. The paper is a journalist piece on Russia’s nationalist and Euroasian ideologies, revolving around the claim that the Russian World is superior to other peoples in terms of civilization, and the restoration of Great Russia should be an objective for both the Kremlin and Russians worldwide. In order to support the claim about Russia’s necessary intervention in the conflict in Donbas, the paper doesn’t use any inconvenient arguments from international law, but “positive” data selected with great discretion, linked to the history of the Russian World. Nevertheless, the paper overlooks tragic chapters in Russian history, such as the persecution of the Ukrainian population during the Russian Empire or the Great Famine Ukrainians were subjected to over 1932-1933.

The argument about Ukraine’s refusal to abide by the Minsk peace agreements seems to lack any basis and evidence. In fact, the author of the article published by Ukraina.ru unknowingly admits in-between the lines that Russia is the one that won’t abide by the peace agreements, writing that Moscow won’t accept the return of Donbas to Ukraine (as the agreements stipulate), claiming Ukraine would thus stage a massacre against the Russian-speaking population there. In fact, according to the Minsk peace agreements, Russia must withdraw its troops and equipment from Donbas so as to allow the organization of free elections which will decide the fate of this region. Ukraine claims it cannot organize the election in the territories under Russia’s de facto control, and that the election cannot take place as long as Kremlin-funded mercenaries hold the entire region at gunpoint.