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Disinfo: Petro Poroshenko intentionally created the Kerch Strait incident in order to cancel or postpone the elections

Summary

The Kerch incident was used by President Petro Poroshenko to cancel the election in Ukraine, because he understood that it is difficult for him to win.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the Azov Sea and presidential elections in Ukraine.

Background information:

On November 25 border patrol boats belonging to Russia’s FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and their crews after shooting at them, wounding several Ukrainian servicemen. Russia argued that they were in Russian waters.

However 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 is considered to be the “internal waters” of both Russia and Ukraine.

The construction of the Kerch Bridge took place without Ukraine's consent and constitutes a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It has led, in parallel with the militarisation of the Azov Sea, to tougher controls on naval traffic in the strait. The European Union stated that it expects  Russia to stop the inspections.

Further debunking by the Polygraph.

 

 

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  • Reported in: Issue 144
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05/04/2019
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Russia, Ukraine
  • Keywords: Kerch, election meddling, Provocation
  • Outlet: Polnyi Kontakt @ Vesti FM time 04:52
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US Ambassador to Kyiv controls Ukraine

The US Ambassador to Kyiv controls Ukraine. The Ukrainian government will do nothing until receiving instructions from the US Ambassador. Therefore, there are no complaints about fraud in the presidential elections in Ukraine.

April 05, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. Recurring pro-Kremlin conspiracy about Western meddling in Ukraine's elections.

Ukraine is a sovereign state, not controlled by any foreign government. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by most of the free world, including the EU.

Ukraine’s presidential campaign is unique for the scale of electoral fraud

The 2019 presidential election in Ukraine is unique for several reasons. First, it takes place amid a civil war. Second, notwithstanding the civil war, the electoral campaign is very competitive. The competition does not concern politicians or their electoral programmes but is centred around a degree of false statements by candidates. There was hardly a case before whereby the Central Electoral Commission’s -system presented data on 50% of processed ballots by 9am the day following the election.

April 03, 2019
Disproof

Recurring Kremlin's disinformation narrative about a civil war in Ukraine, and on election fraud in Ukraine.

The ODIHR Election Observation Mission's Statement of Preliminary Findings and Conclusions does not support allegation about large-scale electoral fraud. The document describes various procedural problems and irregularities however does not report about wide-scale falsifications which could significantly distort the actual voting results. "Election day was assessed positively overall and paves the way to the second round", according to the Statement.

NATO admits the disqualification of millions of voters had a big impact in Ukrainian elections

Approximately 3 million people couldn’t vote in the Donbas region, neither could Ukrainians living and working in Russia since the Ukrainian Embassy didn’t open the planned voting stations. Moscow thinks that 7 to 10 million of Ukrainian citizens didn’t have the chance to participate in the electoral process. “This problem had an enormous influence in yesterday’s elections”, said the president of the observation mission from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Michal Szczerba during a press conference on April 1st.

April 03, 2019
Disproof

A misrepresentation of a quote by the Head of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly observation mission Michal Szczerba. His exact words were:

"What I observed was a free choice by free people. Ukrainians demonstrated their strong commitment to democratic and Euro-Atlantic values. I saw the enthusiasm of citizens of all ages participating in the election process in impressive numbers. However, I sincerely regret that not all could vote because Russia has illegally annexed Crimea and continues its military aggression in eastern Ukraine”.

No "disqualification" of voters took place in the Donbas, but security conditions didn’t allow the running of normal elections in several areas, despite the efforts of Ukrainian authorities to ensure that even soldiers on the frontline could vote.

You can see other examples of disinformation about Ukrainian elections here and here.

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.