DISINFO: New Ukrainian naval bases, if they appear, will serve the interests of NATO
SUMMARY
The statement by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the intention to build two naval bases “to protect the Black Sea region” speaks of the upcoming de-sovereignisation of Ukraine, its transformation into another NATO branch. New naval bases, if they appear, will serve the interests not so much of Ukraine itself as of NATO, whose leadership has long sought to gain a foothold in the northern part of the Black Sea.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation on Ukraine, the aggressive West, NATO encircling Russia and NATO belligerence. This is consistent with the narratives challenging Ukrainian statehood and painting the US and NATO as the puppet-masters of Ukrainian politics. Ukraine is a sovereign state. Neither the US, nor NATO, control Ukraine. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity continue to be violated by acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since February 2014. Despite NATO having refuted such claims many times, pro Kremlin propaganda systematically states that NATO planned to create military bases on the territory of Ukraine: in Crimea, Donbass, the Sea of Azov. A bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, signed in 2003 and ratified by Russia in 2004, governs the use of the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, which in the treaty are considered to be the “internal waters” of both Russia and Ukraine. A treaty stipulates that agreement from each of the two littoral countries is required for warships from any other country to enter the internal sea. It is worth recalling, that on November 2018, border patrol boats belonging to Russia’s FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and a tugboat and their crews after shooting at them, wounding several Ukrainian servicemen and arresting 24 members. As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated: "Now, Russia is attempting to use Crimea to expand its influence. And control the Sea of Azov." See similar cases claiming that Ukraine has become a neocolony of the West, that Ukraine is an anti-Russian project of the CIA, that Ukraine acts on behalf of the US and NATO to escalate the situation at the Azov Sea, that The West deprived Ukraine and Baltic states of their sovereignty.