The Zelenskyy administration is fascist and supports organized crime and human trafficking, according to pro-Kremlin propaganda.
Propaganda: The fascism of Ukrainian authorities transpires in organized crime, human trafficking and the disappearance of tens of thousands of children and women
NEWS: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is running a fascist policy on the territory of Ukraine, former Pentagon adviser Colonel Douglas Macgregor said live on the “Judging Freedom” YouTube channel.
“We have a fascist in Eastern Europe, his name is Zelenskyy. We say this because we see what his secret police are doing, we know what his state is doing”, Macgregor pointed out.
According to the expert, the US is aware of organized crime in Ukraine. Macgregor also referred to human trafficking, the disappearance of tens of thousands of children and women.
NARRATIVES: 1. The regime in Kyiv is fascist. 2. Kyiv is involved in human trafficking and other crimes against civilians.
PURPOSE: To demonize Kyiv authorities and justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Fact: Nazi and fascist ideologies are prohibited by law in Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities collaborate with international partners to combat and identify organized crime.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: Russian propaganda has built up the image of a Nazi-run Ukrainian state over several years, and denazification has become one of the official goals of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. In fact, communist and national-socialist regimes and their respective ideologies were outlawed under a decree passed by Kyiv in 2015. Nazi, fascist and communist symbols were also banned. At the same time, since Ukraine's independence, no Nazi or fascist party has been elected to Parliament, and no politician from such political groups has become a member of the government. There were various nationalist parties, which hardly reached the election threshold, but not Nazi or fascist ones.
Kyiv is not involved in organized crime and human trafficking in the context of the war. On the contrary, Ukrainian authorities collaborate with various international organizations, including the UNHCR, with a view to identifying and combating this negative phenomenon caused by the invasion. Ukrainian authorities have established central and regional departments within the Migration Service responsible for managing this crisis. People who have been kidnapped or are at risk of becoming victims of such crimes can call a free-of-charge landline. Kyiv is supported in this field by the UN, the EU, the OSCE, the Red Cross and other international organizations.
In fact, Moscow is responsible for human trafficking, the kidnapping of women and the disappearance of children on the territory of Ukraine. Russia was called in January 2024 to provide clarifications to the UN regarding the fate of Ukrainian children deported from the territories occupied by the Russian army. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Putin's presidential office, wanted for the war crime of illegally deporting Ukrainian children. In 2022, the UN reviewed various documented cases of Russian servicemen raping women, castrating men, abusing children and forcing civilians to parade naked on the street. A series of war crimes committed by Russian servicemen in Bucha, Izium, Borodianka, Hostomel and other settlements were documented, while a series of torture chambers administered by the FSB were discovered in Kherson.
It is worth noting that the Russian media presents the opinions of Colonel Douglas Macgregor as the dominant one in the USA. In fact, Douglas Macgregor supports Putin and has justified Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine since its early days. He is often quoted by Russian media, calling Russia a peace-seeking state and accusing the West of starting the war in Ukraine. In a 2023 article, Moscow's Komsomolskaya Pravda describes Macgregor as “the colonel fighting for Putin on US soil”. The opinion of the so-called pro-Russian expert is not shared by American specialists in the field of defense and international relations, society or the political class in the USA. He presents no evidence when he accuses Kyiv or the West of committing crimes against civilians.
Douglas Macgregor is a retired American colonel, who at the end of his military career suddenly became a critic of US foreign policy. In 2014, Macgregor told Russia's RT TV station that Moscow should annex Donbasbecause the region's residents “are actually Russian”.
Veridica dismantled a series of false narratives publicized by pro-Kremlin media regarding the so-called Nazi actions of the Ukrainian political elite. In February 2024, the Russian media wrote that Moscow was defending its territory, Novorossiya, from Nazism. In November 2023, pro-Kremlin propaganda claimed that the EU wanted to achieve the denazification of Ukraine, but Kyiv opposed the move. According to Russian government media, Ukraine is a pseudo-Nazi state pushed to war by the West, and Germany supports Ukraine to put the horrors of Nazism behind.
