US President Joe Biden wants a new Cold War with Russia. Biden deliberately provokes Russia and seeks to bring about a new Cold War in order to distract US public opinion from domestic problems.
Summary
Merkel suffered another attack of Russophobia at the fourth German-Ukrainian economic forum. Merkel is still trying with all her might to ignore the real state of affairs, which is that Crimea has returned to Russia for good and that Ukraine is entirely to blame for the lack of progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements on Donbas.
Disproof
A recurring disinformation claim attempting to legitimatise Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea. In this case, it was done through a hyperbolic metaphor aiming to undermine the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
The remarks that were labelled as Russophobia were made by Angela Merkel during the virtual opening of the fourth edition of the German-Ukrainian Business Forum on 19 March. The Chancellor stated that Germany remains committed to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea. Merkel also reaffirmed that for Germany it is important that the EU reacts decisively on the issue of Crimea as well as on the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Labelling criticism of Russia as Russophobia is a classic move used by pro-Kremlin to diverge attention from uncomfortable questions. No international body recognises the illegal annexation of Crimea. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, 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. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order. In response to the illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU has imposed restrictive measures against the Russian Federation. In June 2020, the European Council decided to renew the sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation until 23 June 2021.
As for the Minsk agreements, Ukraine, Germany and France have constantly emphasised their commitment to implement the Minsk agreements. Ukraine is trying to avoid a legal vacuum in its national legislation regarding certain districts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, demonstrating its commitment to implement the Minsk agreements. Ukraine also proposed to conduct local elections in Donbas on condition that the security situation is normalised.
Check previous disinformation narratives in our database 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; or that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine and that it is impossible to recognize the annexation of Crimea because it never happened.