Amid rising Russian-Ukrainian tensions and accusations against Moscow for surrounding Ukraine militarily, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukrainian officials were bound by the Minsk peace deal to negotiate with the separatists in Donbass, and Kiev's counterarguments were termed as propaganda in the style of Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Propaganda during the Nazi regime.
NEWS: “Kiev's statements about a direct dialogue with Donetsk and Lugansk, which they claim are not provided for in the Minsk Protocol, are similar to Goebbels' propaganda”, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday at a press conference held after negotiations with the head of the MFA of Great Britain, Liz Truss.
"It's about Goebbels' school, or possibly a case of surpassing the art of the main propagandist of the Third Reich. It is a case where lies are openly told, the written resolutions of the UN Security Council are rejected […] it is a very comfortable position for the demagogues who are trying to justify their point of view, trying to rewrite the Minsk agreements”, Lavrov said.
[…] Negotiations are effectively stalled following Kiev's refusal to address the “political points” of the Minsk agreements. Kiev does not want to have a direct dialogue with the Donetsk and Lugansk republics, opposes the introduction in the Constitution of a special status for the region, and calls for placing the Russian border with Donbass under Kiev's control until the political objectives of the accords have been fulfilled.”
NARRATIVES: 1. Ukraine is bound by the peace agreements and UN resolutions to negotiate with the separatists in Donetsk and Lugansk. 2. Kiev's official narratives are elements of propaganda, inspired by the work of Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Public Propaganda in Nazi Germany.
LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: Against the background of the growing risk of the Russian Federation launching the invasion of Ukraine, and in the context of the latter being surrounded militarily and the concentration of over 130,000 troops on its borders, high-ranking Russian officials and the pro-Kremlin press have resumed talks about Ukraine's refusal to abide by the Minsk Protocol. These official messages, as well as media reports, are a reaction to a statement by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba, who said on February 9 that Kiev would not accept a direct dialogue with the self-proclaimed republics during the Normandy negotiations. “I believe that Russia will push again for a direct dialogue. And, again, he will receive our refusal”, Kuleba said.
Lavrov launched his narratives against the background of the Kremlin trying to present Ukraine as an aggressor in Donbass. The head of diplomacy of the Russian Federation stated in November 2021 that Ukraine is Nazi and Russophobic , a narrative debunked by Veridica.ro. Regarding Ukraine, Moscow is massively disseminating various narratives about the 2014 “coup”, Russophobia, “the false state”, the “Western colony”, in the context created by the launch of the conflict in Donbass, which resulted in more than 13,000 victims and the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, condemned by the international community.
PURPOSE: The purpose of this narrative is to exonerate Russia in the context of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, by blaming Kiev, which is accused of refusing to abide by the Minsk Protocol, but also of raising tension at the border with Russia.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The Minsk peace accords do not provide for direct negotiations between Kiev and the separatist leaders, which to Ukraine are terrorists. The agreements provide for a “general national internal dialogue” , in the aftermath of the Kiev Euromaidan and the need to legitimize the position of the new Ukrainian authorities. Nowhere in the peace agreements is there any mention of Kiev's obligation to talk to separatist leaders or Moscow-funded mercenaries. The 2015 Agreement provides for a discussion on the future of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, but only as part of the Trilateral Contact Group, which includes Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE. Negotiations are held in this group without the participation of the separatists. This legal reality is denied by the Kremlin, and the absence of direct contacts between Kiev and the separatists is an opportunity to spread false news about Ukraine's “bellicose intentions”.
Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly called off talks with the self-proclaimed leaders of the eastern republic on the situation in the east, stating that a dialogue with them would mean rendering the Russian aggression legitimate.
There is nothing in the UN resolutions about Ukraine's obligation to talk to separatists. On the contrary, the UN acknowledged in its resolution on “Ukraine's Territorial Integrity” that Russia is part of the conflict in Donbass , and it is with it that Kiev is negotiating in the Trilateral Contact Group, set up in 2014. In other words, Russian officials, not Ukrainians, are those who lie when they talk about the Minsk peace accords.
It is no coincidence that Ukrainian diplomats are compared to the propaganda machine of Joseph Goebbels during Nazi Germany. It is about deepening a meta-narrative about Ukraine as a “Nazi state, encouraged by the West”. According to the many false narratives distributed by the pro-Kremlin press, Ukraine is a Nazi state, dangerous for the existence of Russia , despite the fact that the Nazi ideology was condemned and banned in Ukraine, just like the communist one.
GRAIN OF TRUTH: Ukraine does not want to comply with a peace agreement on the holding of local elections in Donbass, considering that these elections cannot be free as long as the Russian army or Moscow-backed mercenaries are on the streets. In fact, Ukraine wouldn’t be able hold elections in a territory it cannot control. Holding elections is conditional on the withdrawal of all troops from Ukraine’s territory. The Kremlin, however, presents Ukraine's position as a refusal to comply with the truce.
