DISINFORMATION: The British special forces will escalate the situation in Donbass without Kiev’s endorsement

NARRATIVES: 1. The West, through the British special forces, will trigger an escalation of the situation in eastern Ukraine, which will turn into a war with Russia. 2. Kiev refuses to start a war, as the West demands.

LOCAL CONTEXT / ETHOS: Since the fall of 2021, the West has been concerned about the concentration of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine - a situation that has developed into a real international crisis early this year.

The alarm about the danger of a Russian attack was raised by Ukraine, but at one point Kiev started smoothing its tone.   At the end of January, President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Westerners not to create panic over the tensions with Russia. He also said that the main risk to his country was “internal destabilization”. Zelensky's message also has an electoral substratum, given the political games in Kiev and the likelihood of the president running for a second term. News of an impending war is likely to discourage foreign investors and hurt Ukraine's already weakened economy, as Zelensky stressed.

After Zelensky called on the United States not to call the conflict with Moscow “imminent”, the Russian state press changed the narrative it used to accuse Ukraine of preparing for war against Russia and Donbas. The new version says that there is not enough political will in Kiev to launch an attack, so the West will give it a boost. Russia argues that the concentration of its troops on the border with Ukraine has a defensive role.

PURPOSE: To promote the narrative according to which the West is trying to force Ukraine to attack Russia. To induce the idea that there are ​​tensions between Ukraine and its Western allies. To convince the public opinion in the former Soviet states that Russia has every right to defend its citizens in the event of the West organizing diversions against the Russian speakers in Donbass.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: In reality, the purpose of the British special forces sent to Ukraine is not to organize diversions on the territory of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics. The British newspaper The Mirror writes that the British special forces will train the Ukrainian armed forces in the skills and techniques that can be useful in case of a Russian invasion - tactics to combat invaders, how to shoot from a distance with sniper rifles and sabotage techniques – all of them being defensive actions, not offensive ones, as the pro-Kremlin press has put it. British special forces have been deployed in the region to help and advise the Ukrainian army. They have a wide range of skills that will no doubt be very useful to the Ukrainian forces, according to the British publication.

This narrative is an element of anti-Western rhetoric, which aims to present the support provided by the UK, the United States or NATO as a move against Russian-speakers and Russia. Veridica.ro has analyzed before fake news disseminated by the pro-Kremlin press, according to which the armament offered by the West to Ukraine is expired . It is worth mentioning that the United Kingdom is one of the NATO states that, in the context of the threat of a Russian invasion, offered Ukraine lethal equipment in order to defend itself.

Fake news targeting Britain can be described as a reaction to the launch of a security cooperation initiative on the London-Warsaw-Kiev axis, discussed during the visit to Ukraine of the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Russian state media have developed and implemented the idea of ​​Russia's MFA spokeswoman Maria Zaharova, who accused the West of preparing a military challenge in the Donbass, mentioning  the destabilizing role of Great Britain, which is sending deadly weapons to Ukraine. Therefore, the article published on Ukraina.ru on the destabilizing functions of the British special forces is part of the anti-Western meta-narrative.

It is also worth noting how the pro-Kremlin press manipulated the situation by presenting the speech of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called on the West not to sow panic. The Russian press writes that the Kiev leader has been “stubbornly refusing to provoke a conflict with Russia” that is why the British special forces will intervene. In fact, Zelensky was concerned about the side effects of the news of an “imminent war”, as that could seriously impact the economy, impoverishing the population and damaging his rating as a politician.On February 3^rd this year, the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov dismantled a series of Moscow's false narratives, saying that Ukraine has no plans to attack Donbas or Crimea.  “We do not plan to attack or occupy, because it is primarily about the lives of the people, the lives of the Ukrainians. We do not want to expose them to such risks”, the minister said.