Disinfo: Donbas is Russia and it must return to its natural border

Summary

Centripetal processes that are bound to come and are inevitable should involve Donbas first. We can see on the map where Donbas is located, how close to Russia. Donbas is not even a zone of Russia’s geopolitical influence, Donbas is Russia itself and it must return to its natural border.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about Donbas, war in Ukraine, and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Donbas is historically a Ukrainian region. "Until the 15th century, it was a referred to as the"wild field", where all who visited the south of Ukraine walked and lived. The 15th-18th centuries were a period of Cossack colonisation, to which government imperial colonisation and the unauthorised settlement of runaway peasants seeking free living space were later added.This continued until the early 19th century," said ethnologist Lesya Gasydgak. In 19th century Donbas began to be inhabited by workers from the Russian provinces. The historian of Donetsk Law University Dmitry Titarenko says that both in that period and in the twentieth century, up to the postwar period, Russian colonisation was a sign of the formation of Donbas. Ukraine hasn't recognised the so-called DPR and LNR as independent states separate from Ukrainian territory. These are parts of the Ukrainian regions Donetsk and Luhansk but supported by Russian military units. Not a single country has recognised them as independent entities. The EU has condemned the clear violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since February 2014. Read similar cases claiming that "The DNR and LNR gained independence from Ukraine", "Kyiv does not want rebel-held territories to rejoin Ukraine", that there is no evidence of Russian presence in Ukraine, that rumours about Russian military presence in Donbas come from linguistic misunderstanding, or that Crimean people have expressed their desire to rejoin Russia and that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine.

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news-front.info (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 216
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 13/10/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Eastern Ukraine, Donbas, War in Ukraine
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Disinfo: Poles were the first to sign a pact with Hitler in 1934

Poles were the first to sign a pact with Hitler in 1934, hoping to participate in the “onslaught to the east.” Five years later, in September 1939, Poland paid the price for its treachery and remained on the world map only thanks to the courage of the Red Army.

Oct 12, 2020
Disproof

This message is part of the Kremlin’s policy of historical revisionism and an attempt to erode the disastrous historical role of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact by stating that other European countries signed various international agreements with Germany throughout the 1930s. The same article contains another disinformation message about Poland planning to partition the USSR. It is impossible to compare the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact as the former was a standard international agreement aimed at the mutual recognition of borders and a declaration that existing political contradictions would be solved through diplomatic tools. There is no evidence that this pact contained any secret protocols, which assumed common aggressive actions of Germany and Poland against the USSR or other countries. Moreover, the pact did not include any agreements on advanced political, economic and military relations between Poland and Germany. While the Red Army's contribution to the liberation of Poland is a fact, it did not achieve it single-handedly as is often suggested by pro-Kremlin narratives. The article fails to notice that there was a strong resistance movement in Poland, the Home Army, Armia Krajowa. It was one of the largest resistance groups in occupied Europe, numbering over 350,000 soldiers. In August 1944, as the Red Army was approaching the Eastern Suburbs of Warsaw, Armia Krajowa organised an uprising against the Nazis. But the Soviet advance stopped, allowing Germans to regroup and destroy the city during the suppression of the uprising, which lasted 63 days. The Home Army was disbanded on 19 of January 1945 to avoid civil war and armed conflict with the Soviets. Read similar examples of the Russian historical revisionism concerning Poland such as Poland posed a military threat to the USSR in 1938-1939, Nazi Germany considered Poland its best ally, if Poland realised a rational policy in 1939, Moscow would have had a different approach towards it and the German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934 assumed the partition of the USSR.

Disinfo: EU is punishing Russia with baseless sanctions

What was the basis for [the European Union’s] decision to extend of sanctions? No court decision was issued; not documented evidence of Russia’s involvement has been produced. The matter is repeated with the poisoning incident of the opposition candidate Alexei Navalny. They are trying to punish Russia at any cost with these decisions.

Oct 12, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury and Navalny’s poisoning and also a pro-Kremlin approach portraying every measure taken against Russia's hostile actions as Russophobia. On the Skripal case The British Police have presented a solid chain of evidence, with pictures, connecting the suspects to the locations in the case. Parts of the material have been released to the public. The evidence was sufficient to charge two Russian nationals, Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin with the attack on the Skripals, both Russian military intelligence operatives from the GRU, who travelled to the UK using fake names and documents. The OPCW’s independent expert laboratories confirmed the UK’s identification of the Russian produced Novichok nerve agent. On the Navalny case Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny fell ill during a flight and was transferred to Berlin's Charite Hospital. The German federal government said that toxicological tests provided “unequivocal evidence of a chemical nerve agent of the Novichok group” in Navalny's blood samples. The European Union condemned the poisoning of Alexei Navalny in the strongest possible terms and on Thursday 15th October, agreed sanctions against six people believed to have been involved in the “assassination attempt” against Putin’s most vocal critic as well as the Russian State Research Institute of Organic Chemistry and Technology, which it believes developed the chemical used to poison Navalny. Russian Novichok According to the UK intelligence assessment, based on open-source analysis and intelligence information, in the past decade, Russia has produced and stockpiled small quantities of Novichok agents, long after it signed the Chemical Weapons Convention. Actually, Novichok was developed in Russia in the 1970s and 1980s in a covert programme codenamed Foliant that was revealed by defectors, and no country outside of Russia is known to have developed the substance. See reports here and here. Leonid Rink, identified as one of the scientists who developed Novichok, was cited frequently in Russian media during the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, admitted to working on the development of the chemical agent in the Soviet era. Read similar disinformation cases alleging that the Navalny poisoning could be a strategy of the West to introduce anti-Russian sanctions, that there is no evidence of Navalny poisoning and that another reason would be found for sanctions if there had been no Navalny, in addition to other cases alleging that there was no evidence of Russia's involvement in the poisoning of Skripals and that Russia is accused of poisoning without proof.

Disinfo: The Polish anti-monopoly regulator is promoting American interests in Europe

The position of Warsaw towards the Nord Stream 2 [recent decision to fine Gazprom] looks very strange. It is possible that Poland does not even hope to win this case – it is just trying to make the Nord Stream 2 toxic, in order to force the European companies to withdraw from participation in this project. Here, Poland clearly acts as a side promoting American interests. The United States also calls upon Europe to stop its cooperation with Gazprom, threatening it with sanctions. In this situation, the Polish anti-monopoly regulator is “grunting” from another corner.

Oct 12, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Nord Stream 2 project, suggesting the idea that particular European countries (such as Poland) protest against it because of the position of the United States. The statement that the Polish authorities are against the construction of Nord Stream 2 because of the USA’s position is a conspiracy theory. The Polish authorities have repeatedly stated that Nord Stream 2 is incongruent with the goals of the EU’s energy policy. In the opinion of Poland, the pipeline would lead to further monopolisation of the market rather than the diversification of gas supplies to Europe. A recent decision of the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) regarding Gazprom is connected to the refusal of Gazprom to cooperate with the Polish anti-monopoly investigation regarding Nord Stream 2. On October 3, the UOKiK presented its decision to fine Gazprom for 7.61 billion EUR for its failure to cooperate in the anti-trust investigation conducted in relation to the construction of Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. See similar messages regarding the Polish position towards the Nord Stream 2: Polish decision to fine Gazprom for the Nord Stream 2 is directly connected to Navalny case, Polish actions against Nord Stream 2 are inconsistent with EU policies – they promote the US interests, and The concept of “energy security” has turned into an anti-Russian project.