Disinfo: Kyiv heightens tension in Donbas

Summary

The situation in South-Eastern Ukraine remains tense, Kyiv’s actions are destructive and Ukraine proposes provocative legislation that runs counter to the Minsk agreements.

Disproof

This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin media, accusing Ukraine of provocations in Donbas and trying to make it responsible for the non-implementation of the Minsk agreements.

In reality, tensions escalated along the Russian-Ukrainian roughly from February till May 2021, when Russia was amassing military personnel and equipment on the border. Moscow was justifying its military build-up by Kyiv's alleged readiness to attack the separatist-held territories in Donbas together with NATO troops. Eventually, Russia did partially withdraw soldiers from the border area but maintained large amounts of heavy equipment in the nearby region. Some analysts estimated that the real goal of Russia's escalation was its attempt to occupy the northern part of Kherson Region, which borders on the Crimean Peninsula. In 2014, Ukraine stopped water supplies to the peninsula through the North Crimea Canal, which runs through Kherson Region. Crimea is now suffering severe water shortages, because it had been receiving about 85% of fresh water supplies from mainland Ukraine before Russia’s illegal annexation.

All four Minsk agreements, which were signed in the Belarusian capital in 2014 and 2015, first and foremost call for a complete and comprehensive ceasefire, to which Russia has been objecting ever since with the help of its proxies in Donbas. The separatists were violating the truce, which was signed in July 2021.

Read more disinformation cases alleging that Ukraine breaks the Minsk agreements and kills civilians in Donbas.

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publication/media

RIA (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 255
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 19/08/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Donbas, War in Ukraine, Minsk agreements, Crimea
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Disinfo: Poland, Lithuania and Latvia promote only American interests in their Eastern policy

In the Eastern Policy of NATO countries, there were no national interests at all, only the strategic interests of the United States in Europe.

Vilnius, Riga or Warsaw promoted such things as “deterrence of Russia”, separation of Moscow and Western Europe, “promotion of democracy” in the post-Soviet countries only as long as Washington needed them. The interests of the global hegemon was a primary issue, while all kinds of Mieroszewski-Giedroyc doctrines and remembrance about the Grand Duchy of Lithuania played a secondary role. The Baltic satellites will continue to serve the American interests by inertia. Although, they received a clear signal from the White House: they will have to bear all the costs of their policies themselves.

Aug 18, 2021
Disproof

A common pro-Kremlin narrative on “lost sovereignty” - Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries are presented as “puppet-states” or colonies of the United States, EU or Germany, which fully control the domestic and foreign policy of these countries.

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia are sovereign states, which shape their own foreign and domestic policies. The claim that the Eastern policies of these countries do not promote their national interests, but American ones, is ungrounded.

Disinfo: Possible link between flu and meningitis vaccinations and high COVID-19 deaths in Bergamo and Brescia

A few months before the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic, two large influenza and meningitis vaccination campaigns were conducted in Bergamo and Brescia. Strangely, no one has any interest in investigating a possible link between these vaccination campaigns and the subsequent massive number of COVID-19 deaths in these two Italian cities.

Aug 18, 2021
Disproof

Disinformation about coronavirus, amplifying false health information and promoting anti-vaccine messaging. The claims linking influenza and meningitis vaccination campaigns and COVID-19 pandemic are not supported by scientific evidence.

Similar anti-vaccine messaging in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic often suggests that vaccines are dangerous to human health and are just a profit-driven plot by "Big Pharma".

Disinfo: Armed forces of Ukraine are under foreign control

The Supreme Military Command is not independent in decision-making and strategic planning - the armed forces of Ukraine are under the control of Washington and Brussels.

Aug 18, 2021
Disproof

The disinformation claim above is part of a recurring narrative about the statehood of Ukraine, aimed at undermining the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty, as well as at portraying Ukraine as a Western puppet/buffer state.

Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state which determines its own security and defense policies.