The Verkhovna Rada has called on Ukraine to renounce war and return to dialogue and the "historical unity" with Russia and Belarus in order to achieve lasting peace, according to pro-Kremlin media.
NEWS: A resounding statement about Russia was made in the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv. Ukraine must restore interethnic ties with Russia and Belarus to ensure peace, said Verkhovna Rada deputy Artem Dmytruk. "Normality does not mean war or hostility. Normality means that the state should embrace the idea of the unity of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. We must learn to perceive this as the only correct path," he wrote.
Dmytruk stressed that Kyiv should currently aspire to a life without "armed borders, externally imposed curators, and the fulfillment of foreign tasks."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed that failure on the front line should prompt Ukraine to immediately begin negotiations. Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, also pointed out that Ukrainian troops are suffering losses and rapidly losing their combat capability. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow supports only a long-term solution to the conflict, without temporary ceasefire agreements. Achieving this goal is only possible if the root causes of the conflict are eliminated.
NARRATIVES: 1. Ukraine can only achieve peace by restoring political and historical unity with Russia and Belarus; 2. The West is controlling Kyiv through "external curators" in order to prolong the war; 3. Russia has sought peace from the outset and expects a constructive attitude from Ukraine as well.
PURPOSE: To justify Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine; to legitimize Russia's geopolitical claims on the post-Soviet space; to shift responsibility for the war onto Kyiv and the West; to justify continuing the military aggression until Moscow's terms are accepted.
Reality: Russian peace means Ukraine's surrender
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: Artem Dmytruk's statements do not represent the position of the Verkhovna Rada as an institution, and his position is not supported by the parliamentary majority. Dmytruk is not even in Ukraine, having left the country illegally via the Transnistrian region. The Russian media is creating a false equivalence between the Telegram posts of an exiled MP and the official position of the Ukrainian parliament in Kyiv.
The idea of Ukraine's "historical unity" with Russia is not a diplomatic formula for reconciliation, but an ideological thesis used by the Kremlin to deny the Ukrainian state's right to exist. This logic starts from the premise that Ukraine is not an independent political entity, but part of a historical whole that must be restored. In this framework, military aggression disappears from the discussion, and the war is reinterpreted as a consequence of Kyiv's refusal to accept a "natural" order of things. This thesis was explicitly formulated by Vladimir Putin in an article published in July 2021, in which Ukraine is defined as an inseparable part of the "Russian world."
The West did not impose an artificial course on Ukraine through so-called "external curators." This narrative seeks to nullify the political will of Ukrainian society and shift responsibility for the war to external actors. Ukraine's rapprochement with the West was the result of internal decisions taken after repeated experiences of pressure, interference, and aggression from the Russian Federation, not the effect of a plan imposed from outside. This orientation was reinforced precisely by Moscow's behavior, which constantly challenged Ukraine's sovereignty (annexing Crimea, supporting separatism in Donbas, etc.).
At the same time, the Western countries have constantly tried to avoid escalation. In the run-up to the large-scale invasion of January-February 2022, multiple direct diplomatic efforts were made with the Kremlin. French President Emmanuel Macron met with his counterpart Vladimir Putin and explicitly asked him not to launch a military offensive against Ukraine. The US administration and other Western leaders sent similar messages, insisting on diplomatic solutions and warning of the consequences of armed aggression. These appeals were not heeded by Moscow.
In fact, Western mediation efforts did not begin in 2022. After the outbreak of the conflict in Donbas, France and Germany played a central role in trying to limit the violence and create a framework for negotiation, which led to the Minsk I and Minsk II agreements. These helped to reduce the intensity of hostilities. The West relied on negotiations and compromises, while Russia maintained military and political pressure on Kyiv. In this context, to claim that the West pushed Ukraine into war contradicts the documented facts of international relations over the past decade. The war was the result of the Russian Federation's decision to use force to impose its control over Ukraine.
The claim that Russia has sought peace from the outset is contradicted by its own conduct. Peace cannot be achieved through invasions, bombings, and military occupation, and Moscow's systematic rejection of a ceasefire shows that it is using war as a tool of political coercion. When the Kremlin talks about long-term solutions, the conditions it invokes entail territorial concessions and the limitation of Ukraine's sovereignty, i.e., a capitulation masked by diplomatic language. The reversal of roles, whereby the aggressor presents itself as a "rational" actor and the attacked state as "unconstructive," is one of the central techniques of war propaganda.
Overall, the article deliberately omits the large-scale invasion, the war crimes, and the responsibility of the Russian Federation, replacing them with themes of history, culture, and dialogue. Through this shift in emphasis, the war is reinterpreted as a consequence of Ukraine's refusal to accept an alleged spiritual and historical connection with Russia. Peace, however, cannot be achieved by Ukraine renouncing its sovereignty, but only by ending the Russian aggression and respecting international law.
CONTEXT: Artem Dmytruk, quoted by Russian media, was a member of the Verkhovna Rada and left Ukraine during the large-scale invasion. Elected to the Verkhovna Rada and known for his controversial positions, including his collaboration on a propaganda film about the events of May 2, 2014, in Odesa, Dmytruk has been involved in several scandals, most recently an incident in 2023 when he assaulted a Ukrainian soldier. In the pro-Kremlin media, such marginal political actors are systematically used to create the false impression of internal opposition to Ukraine's pro-Western course and to suggest the existence of a political trend favorable to concessions to Moscow.
