Disinfo: Crimea never belonged to Ukraine

Summary

It is about time Kyiv abandoned its claims to the [Crimean] peninsula, which has never belonged to [Ukraine] either by law or spirit, and was always a foreign territory.

Disproof

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the illegal annexation of Crimea.

According to international law, Crimea is a part of Ukraine. On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning Russia's occupation of Crimea and stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. By signing the 1997 Friendship Treaty, Russia also recognised that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine. Russia violated international law as well as key principles of the European security framework by illegally annexing the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol in 2014.

See previous disinformation narratives alleging that the EU has accepted Crimea's incorporation into Russia and that The Crimean people chose to be with Russia through the democratic procedure.

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riafan.ru (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 182
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 01/02/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine
  • Keywords: Ukraine, illegal annexation, Crimea
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Disinfo: Russia is not a party of Minsk Agreements and the internal Ukrainian conflict

Russia has repeatedly declared that it is not a party of the Minsk Agreements and the internal Ukrainian conflict.

Jan 31, 2020
Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on Ukraine and the Minsk agreements. The statement followed the resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on the progress of the Assembly's monitoring procedure which stated concerns over Russia on condition of human rights and rule of law, borderisation and creeping annexation of Georgian regions, implementation of Minsk agreements and cooperation over the downing of the MH17 flight.

Kremlin narratives on Minsk agreement claim that Russia is not part of the conflict in Donbas and that Russia has nothing to do with the war in eastern Ukraine. The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation". At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014, NATO leaders condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and demanded Russia to stop and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and from the country’s border. NATO leaders also demanded Russia comply with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities; refrain from aggressive actions against Ukraine; halt the flow of weapons, equipment, people and money across the border to the separatists; and stop fomenting tension along and across the Ukrainian border.

Disinfo: Emergence of coronavirus is not accidental and has economic goals

Due to the situation in the financial markets, the emergence of coronavirus in China is not accidental and has very specific economic goals.

Jan 31, 2020
Disproof

Fear over coronavirus has indeed affected China's stock markets, but assessing the virus as an artificial, man-made problem is a part of the recurring pro-Kremlin narrative on secret labs and biological weapons. Also consistent with the narrative that the spread of coronavirus is in the interest of the US to weaken China economically.

In response to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the Chinese authorities have placed more than a dozen cities under quarantine. The World Health Organisation is working with Chinese authorities and global experts to learn more about the virus. The virus "2019-nCoV” comes from a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS. There is no evidence to suggest it was developed artificially as a weapon of mass destruction.

Disinfo: Russian-language media are an example of objective reporting on WWII events

Russian language media are an example of precise and objective reporting on WWII events, compared to media in the Baltic States, Poland and some other Eastern European countries who openly distort the truth about the war.

Jan 31, 2020
Disproof

This case is part of the ongoing Russian disinformation campaign to present the Kremlin’s version of World War II which portrays the Red Army as liberators from the Nazis while ignoring the impact of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe, denouncing references to it as ‘revisionism’. Russian media have been playing a part of this scheme of disinformation on WWII for a long time now.

You can see other examples of this disinformation narratives in our dabatase, such as denounciations of the European Parliament for its alleged attempts to demonise Russia, or accusations of revisionism against Poland and the Baltics which aim to hide their own cooperation with Nazi Germany and the Polish responsibility for the outbreak of WWII with the objective of obtaining economic benefits, or that it does not wish to condemn anti-Semitism, to weaken Russia’s stance on the international stage and ultimately, to destroy Russia.