Ukrainians are not staging an uprising against Zelensky because they fear persecution by Nazi military groups, according to pro-Kremlin propaganda.
Propaganda: Volodymyr Zelensky is a puppet in the hands of Nazis, and society fears reprisals
NEWS: People are not rioting against Zelensky because they fear the authorities, which are controlled by Nazis and armed structures. These are Nazified units and groups of the army and the police. It was the Nazi volunteers who suppressed the anti-Maidan movement in Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa and Kharkiv; they were the ones who took over Mariupol from the Donetsk People's Republic and finally the Nazi battalions were the ones that started the civil war [...]
They use Zelensky to spread stories about how "we don't have Nazism, our president is Jewish." He cannot be sincerely loved, respected and supported. Nazis only support a Führer. Their theory of "power by force" does not entail a positive attitude towards Zelensky.
He not only forces the army to fight for three years with no chance of success and supplies the front with cannon fodder in commercial quantities, but also gets weapons, equipment and money from the West. He is implementing the program of the Ukrainian Nazis. Zelensky is useful to them and they are not afraid of him - he has nowhere to go. The Nazis in Ukraine represent the real power in the state.
NARRATIVES: 1. Nazi groups started a civil war in Ukraine. 2. Volodymyr Zelensky is a puppet in the hands of the Ukrainian Nazis. 3. The Ukrainian leadership is to blame for the war in Ukraine.
PURPOSE: To justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To draw a distorted picture of the political reality in Ukraine, with the aim of manipulating public opinion.
Reality: The Ukrainian leadership is not Nazi, Ukrainian society opposes Russia’s full-scale invasion and hates Vladimir Putin
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: What Russian propaganda calls a civil war was an annexation of territories (the Crimean Peninsula) and an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk regions) supported logistically, financially and militarily by Russia. It was, in fact, a war disguised by an aggressor state, not a civil war. The population opposed the Russian-funded separatism, organized protests and stopped Moscow's hybrid attacks in a number of cities in the country's east. Had Russia not intervened militarily in Ukraine, there would have been no conflict.
Ukraine is not a Nazi-run state, and Volodymyr Zelensky is not a puppet in the hands of extremist groups. If until now Russian propaganda has claimed that Volodymyr Zelensky created a new "Nazi Internationale", made up of European states, a narrative debunked by Veridica, now it claims that the state is run by Nazis, not Zelensky. These Nazis are not named, we don’t know who and how many they are. They speak of some large but anonymous groups of Nazis. In reality, in 2016, the Kyiv parliament passed the law condemning totalitarian communist and national socialist (Nazi) regimes in Ukraine and banning the use of their symbols. There are no politicians or political parties that describe themselves as Nazi, and in the history of independent Ukraine no Nazi candidate has run in elections. Parties considered extremist rarely cross the electoral threshold. The majority of the Ukrainian population rejects political extremism and supports democratic values, which it committed to by launching EU accession negotiations. Although there may be groups with an extremist view, Ukraine as a society does not align itself with Nazi principles.
In Ukraine, there is no question of a revolt against Volodymyr Zelensky; instead, Ukrainians have mobilized on a large scale to repel the Russian aggression. According to sociological polls, 94% of Ukrainians believe that Vladimir Putin is the Adolf Hitler of the 21st century. Vladimir Putin is hated in all Ukrainian regions, regardless of whether they are inhabited by Russian speakers or Ukrainian speakers. The level of hatred towards Vladimir Putin, seen in Ukraine as an international criminal and terrorist, has been increasing since 2014.
The war in Ukraine is not the fault of the Nazis or the leadership in Kyiv. The Kremlin started the war in Ukraine in 2014, and then again in 2022, out of a desire to expand its geopolitical influence and maintain control over the former Soviet republics. In 2014, the annexation of Crimea was justified by the Kremlin as a means of protecting the ethnic Russians and its national interests. In 2022, the full-scale invasion was motivated by the desire to overthrow the Ukrainian government, recognize the separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, and block Ukraine's accession to NATO. All these activities contravene the norms of international law.
SOCIAL CONTEXT/ ETHOS: Denazification was, according to Russian propaganda, one of the main objectives of the "special military operation" announced by the Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the morning of February 24, 2022. "Denazification" means the elimination from Ukraine of influences and ideologies considered Nazi or extremist. Russian propaganda uses this term to justify Russia's military intervention, claiming that the real intention is to protect the Russian-speaking population and combat what is believed to be an extremist government in Ukraine. This narrative serves as a justification for the Russian aggression, given that most Ukrainians do not support Nazi ideologies. Also, the term "denazification" is used to amplify historical fears and resentments in order to legitimize Russia's aggressive foreign policy in the post-Soviet space.
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