Disinfo: By accusing Russia of playing a role in Donbas war, Ukraine has renounced the Minsk agreements

Summary

By accusing Russia of involvement in the Donbas conflict, Ukraine has effectively renounced the Minsk agreements.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the Donbas conflict.

Ukraine's participation in the Minsk peace process does not imply that Russia is not involved in the Donbas war.

There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."

The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation".

According to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) Russian special forces and troops operated to mobilise, lead, equip, and support separatist militias in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine from spring 2014 to the present, although their presence was denied by Moscow. On top of that, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine in 2015.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 239
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/04/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Russia, Ukraine
  • Keywords: Minsk agreements, War in Ukraine, Military, Eastern Ukraine, Donbas, Diplomacy with Russia, DNR, LNR
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Disinfo: Kyiv is hysterical and has practically declared war on Moscow with Washington's encouragement

Washington is implicating Kyiv in a war against Russia that it is unlikely to involve itself in, despite the loud statements.

In Europe, they are loudly talking of an impending war, for the first time since the war in Yugoslavia. The aggravation of the situation in Donbas, the hysteria of Kyiv, which has practically declared war on Moscow, and the US declarations that it will "not leave Ukraine" alone in its confrontation with Russia, prompt a serious consideration of military options to solve the Donbas conflict.

Disproof

This disinformation claim combines a few pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine.

First is that Ukraine is the aggressor in the conflict in Donbas and that Russia is never the aggressor. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Donbas. Since 2014, Russia has been actively involved in violating Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by financially and militarily backing the separation of Donetsk and Luhansk. An InformNapalm study shows that thirty-one weapons systems found in the Donbas entered service with the Russian military between 2004 and 2015 and have never been produced in, or sold to, Ukraine. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine.

Disinfo: Russia to intervene in Donbas if Ukraine boosts conflict

A ramping-up of the conflict would lead to the end of Ukraine, with the Kremlin forced to stand up for its citizens living on the territory of Donbas. In recent years, Moscow has made it much simpler for those living in Ukraine to get a Russian passport, and many have taken up the offer. Everything depends on what the scale of fighting will be. If there is, as Putin says, a Srebrenica, Russia will be forced to stand up for its citizens.

Disproof

This is a reappearing disinformation message accompanying the current Russia’s military build-up near borders of Ukraine and on occupied Crimea.

Russia will be forced to intervene to defend its citizens if Ukraine launches an offensive in Donbas, according to a recent statement by Dmitry Kozak, Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff. These words echo a 2019 statement by Putin, in which he compared this possibility with a massacre similar to that in Srebrenica in 1995. Bosnian Serb troops killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys back then in what is considered to be the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. Putin said that if Ukraine got control of the border between its breakaway region and Russia, local residents might be persecuted because they had been offered no security guarantees. The Russian may have forgotten, or ignores, the fact that Russia was the only member of the UN Security Council to veto the resolution in 2015 that would have described the Srebrenica massacre as "genocide".

Disinfo: EU made a mistake abandoning Sputnik-V

The European Union made a mistake in its assessment of abandoning the Russian vaccine, "Sputnik V". European countries dealt coldly with the importance of the Russian vaccine and were not enthusiastic about it because it is Russian, without taking into account the laboratory results and this also applies to the Norwegian government.

Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin echoed disinformation about the EU, vaccination and the current EMA rolling review of Sputnik V, trying to link the Sputnik V authorisation process to Russophobia.

From 4 March 2021, Sputnik V vaccine is under the rolling review of the European Medicines Agency, and the decision will be fully decided on a scientific not a political basis.