FAKE NEWS: The West and Romania will go to war on the side of Ukraine

A multinational coalition other than NATO will go to war on the side of Ukraine, thus confirming that Moscow is, in fact, fighting the West, which is perpetuating the fratricidal Russian-Ukrainian conflict in order to achieve global economic supremacy. The false narrative was launched by journalist Ion Cristoiu. In reality, Cristoiu interprets facts and statements in a personal note, without providing any evidence to support his claims.

NEWS: “This is the first stage of what appears to be the direct military involvement of many European countries in the form of a multinational coalition. The tanks and helicopters sent now are not for the Ukrainian military, outnumbered by the Russians, but for the multinational coalition. We could say that the participating countries are already sending the heavy weapons that their own military will need when they start the War against Russia alongside Ukraine. [...] Klaus Iohannis secretly makes commitments on behalf of Romania, directing the country's involvement in the war, which is increasing by the day. [...] Under this sign of dragging Romania into irresponsible adventures, for the sole purpose of getting a NATO or EU job when his term ends, Klaus Iohannis is working hard for Romania's participation in the multinational coalition”.

NARRATIVES: 1. The West will attack Russia, which is getting stronger by the day. 2. Romania will enter the war, forced by the Western countries. 3. Romania's status within the EU and NATO will continue to be one of lower rank, as a vassal state of the West.

CONTEXT:  Almost a year after launching the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has failed to achieve any major operational objective, such as capturing Kyiv or all of Donbas. Moreover, it was unable to maintain territorial gains in the Kharkiv region or the strategic city of Kherson. Furthermore, the serial bombings that have targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure for months have failed to generate significant operational effects or demoralize Ukrainian society, as the Kremlin may have hoped. Despite these aspects, Moscow’s actions  and statements  lead to the conclusion that the Russians are beginning to approach the “special military operation” as a long-term conflict and that they are preparing to carry out a decisive strategic action in the coming months, aimed at regaining the initiative to their side and end Ukraine's string of military successes. Under these circumstances,  Kyiv has asked from the Western countries  more and better-performing weapons. The context could not remain untapped by the defenders of the “Russian peace” and  new fake news, structured on several levels, was launched in the public space.  It is not the first time that Ion Cristoiu promotes false narratives about the war in Ukraine; for example, just a few days before the Russian invasion, Cristoiu said that  the Western press was disinforming about the crisis in that country, and after the invasion he voiced theses that coincide with those of the Russian propaganda, for example that Ukrainians are cannon fodder for the West , that the war in Ukraine is a pretext for denigrating Russia, for censorship, scaring the population in Romania and Europe and making arms sellers rich, etc.

PURPOSE:  To undermine the population's trust in the West, NATO and the European Union, to induce fear of war and increase the number of those who imperatively demand that Ukraine accept the “Russian peace”, to promote a sovereignist discourse and validate fake news of Moscow origin.

WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Since the beginning of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, Western leaders have made it unequivocally clear that they will not engage in a direct war with Russia, but that they will support Ukraine's defense through other means, including the provision of weapons and military equipment. The statements of the Western leaders have been translated in facts – in order not to provoke Russia, the Western countries have been careful with the weapons delivered to Ukraine. In the first stage of the war, the West offered only light equipment, and some more powerful equipment, such as the HIMARS systems, were delivered in limited quantities. Fighter planes, heavy tanks, long-range missiles have not been delivered even after a year of war.

So far, even if Russia is playing the victim  by posing as a state aggressed by NATO and the European Union, the Kremlin has failed to provide evidence of actual battlefield confrontations with regular troops of any NATO or EU member state. It should be noted that the battlefield is in Ukraine, a state invaded by Russia, and Kyiv is the only one in a position, according to international law, to decide who it accepts or not on its territory.

However, the Western states have not taken any action to suggest a potential attack on Russian troops in Ukraine. The assumption that the Western allies are preemptively sending their weapons to the war zone has no logical foundation. No army determined to attack would leave its equipment in the hands of others, at the risk of being misused, damaged, or even captured by the future enemy. The increasingly powerful weaponry supplied to Kyiv has no other purpose than to strengthen the Ukrainian defense capabilities.

Ion Cristoiu also manages the performance of contradicting himself, a habit already well established among the promoters of Moscow propaganda, when he states that Romania was not accepted in Schengen so that it could be blackmailed with this “privilege” and force the participation of our country in the imaginary military coalition (HAI România!). Almost three months ago, the maestro was demonstrating how the reason for rejecting our Schengen accession was the alleged  rivalry between the ports of Constanța and Rotterdam .

It is somewhat redundant to also mention that Austria, the reason why, in the end, we did not join Schengen, has a neutral military status, so it could not attract anyone to a military coalition; moreover, Austria has been considered, for years, one of the Western countries closest to Russia. To illustrate one last time Mr. Cristoiu’s nonsensical argumentation, we quote part of the dialogue on YouTube, in which no one can distinguish good propaganda from bad propaganda, and the news about  joint Russian-Belarusian military exercises  becomes fake news promoted by the West to justify the military intervention in Ukraine:

“Ionuț "Sărmăluță" Cristache: Ok, we understand that according to the latest information, Russia and Belarus have started joint military exercises.

Ion Cristoiu: Is part of the propaganda.

I.S.C.: Propaganda for what purpose?

I.C.: What purpose?! Ukraine is on the brink, help, they’re killing me, we have to finally intervene, militarily.”

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• War in Ukraine