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Disinfo: European Council wants to starve the Syrian people

Summary

[The extension of sanctions] is a continuation of the anti-Syrian campaign that the European Council has resorted to since the beginning of the terrorist war on Syria, using the Syrian chemical file as an excuse to continue spreading lies about Syria.

[The extension] falls within the framework of … starving the Syrian people and undermining their steadfastness.

Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about sanctions against the Syrian regime trying to portray them as illegal and targeting the Syrian population.

The EU sanctions do not target the Syrian population but individuals and entities who are involved with a political regime that has committed war crimes, avoiding negative impacts on the population. See EEAS video here for further details.

It should be noted that the restrictions include exemptions for humanitarian needs and purposes.

EU sanctions for chemical weapons, imposed since 2018, respond to the regime’s involvement in the proliferation and use of chemical weapons.

EU sanctions for chemical weapons were renewed recently for one year until 16 October 2021.

The goal of these measures is to support the global prohibition of chemical weapons as laid down by the Chemical Weapons Convention.

They are part and parcel of the EU’s wider approach to the Syria crisis, as outlined in the EU strategy on Syria.

See a similar case that EU sanctions against Syria are illegal, that it targets people for merely doing business in Damascus.

The same article contained another disinformation claim alleging that Syria does not possess any chemical weapons.

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  • Reported in: Issue 216
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 14/10/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Arabic
  • Country: Syria
  • Keywords: European Union, Chemical weapons/attack, Sanctions, Syrian War
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It was agreed that NATO would never accept countries that border Russia

In the Russo-American negotiations of 1991, it was agreed, admittedly orally, that NATO would NEVER include countries with a common border with Russia, apart from the Baltic countries, whose annexation had never been recognised.

Oct 13, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about NATO enlargement.

The US or NATO made no promises to not expand into eastern and central Europe back in 1990, which was confirmed by the former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. Back in 2014, Gorbachev said: "The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility."

The West deprived Ukraine and Baltic states of their sovereignty

The West uses the topic of sovereignty precisely in order to deprive others of it, just as this happened with the Baltic states, or Ukraine: once out of the USSR, they surrendered their sovereignty. The plan has never been to give them sovereignty but to use them as an anti-Russian tool for the destruction of Russia.

Oct 13, 2020
Disproof

Conspiracy theory with no evidence given. This disinformation message advances pro-Kremlin narratives undermining the statehood of Ukraine and sovereignty of the Baltic states casting them as abandoned by their Western partners. Sovereignty and respect for other countries' independent rights are at the core of Western liberal democracy. There is no evidence that the West is depriving Ukraine or the Baltic states of their sovereignty or that they are tools against Russia. The Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - are fully-fledged members of the EU and NATO, where they have the same rights as any other member state. They are sovereign, independent, and democratic countries. Ukraine is an independent country. Its sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost all countries. Ukraine is a priority partner for the EU and a strategic partner for the US. Ukraine also develops its relations with NATO. The EU, the US, and other Western partners support the democratic development of Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter’s principles of non-interference into internal affairs and respect towards territorial integrity and political independence. See similar disinformation cases alleging that the West have disposed of Ukraine like trash, that the three seas initiative is an American project against the EU, that Ukraine surrenders its sovereignty to get loans from the EU, or that Ukraine is occupied by the Americans.

Donbas is Russia and it must return to its natural border

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.

Oct 13, 2020
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.