The situation in Ukraine is being used by the West as a pretext to foment a confrontation with Russia, which is totally unacceptable. The West encourages anti-Russian sentiments and protects the regime's actions in Kyiv to disrupt the Minsk agreements and prepare aggression in the Donbas.
Instead of reining in their Ukrainian clients, NATO countries are pushing Kyiv to take aggressive steps. There is no other way to explain the repeated unscheduled exercises of the United States and its allies in the Black Sea. Aircraft of NATO member states, including strategic bombers, periodically carry out provocative flights and dangerous manoeuvres near the borders of Russia.
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative whose purpose is to deflect any Russian responsibility in the escalation of tensions on the Ukrainian border by blaming the West and NATO for it.
The current tensions are a result of Russia’s military buildup on the Ukrainian border since late October 2021. This includes the deployment of as many as 90,000 troops, as well as of certain specialised military units, electronic warfare systems and heavy-armoured vehicles. Despite Russian denials, this has been proven by satellite images and intelligence of the US, Ukraine and NATO, among other countries and institutions.
The European Union expressed its deep concern about the current build-up of Russian military forces near the Ukrainian-Russian border. In a statement released by the G7 countries on 12 December 2021, the leaders called on Russia to de-escalate, pursue diplomatic channels, and abide by its international commitments on transparency of military activities. See also the NATO statement of 16 December.
See also the EU statement of 24 January 2022 about Russia's role in Ukraine here.
Find out more about seven common myths surrounding the current Russia-Ukraine conflict in our recent analysis.
The Russian-speaking population of the Donbas is being subjected to genocide.
Following the Western-backed coup d'etat in 2014, residents of the region demanded independence from Ukraine. The new government in Kyiv responded to this uprising with military force, thrusting the country into civil war.
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying the Ukrainian leadership as pathologically Russophobic and bent on subjecting the country's Russian-speaking population to "genocide."
There is no evidence that either ethnic Russians or Russian speakers are facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities, much less the danger of annihilation on grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or cultural belonging. This has been confirmed by reports issued by the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE.
Bundestag calls for the lifting of EU sanctions against Belarus.
Misleading headline, implying the German Bundestag demands the lifting of EU sanctions on Belarus.
The German parliament, the Bundestag, is not vowing for a cancellation of the sanctions. In fact, the misleading passage comes from a single politician, who is not representing the Bundestag, but merely his personal opinion.
West separated the topic of Crimea from the “Ukrainian question”. It means, that Western countries, in fact, recognised that the peninsula belongs to Russia.
The narrative is linked to the topic of Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 20214.
The EU, the US, and other Western countries, as well as international organisations, have a clear position about the status of Crimea as a part of Ukraine and it has not changed.
