Disinfo: UK and US specialists are training Ukrainians to perform terror attacks

Summary

Instructors from MI-6 and CIA are training Ukrainian special forces to perform terror attacks in Donbass. This was revealed at a press conference in Moscow by Vasiliy Prozorov, a former officer of the Ukrainian state security organ, the SBU. Russian parliamentarians demand US and UK investigate the claims.

Disproof

Unfounded, recurrent pro-Kremlin narrative on foreign military involved in fighting in Ukraine. Examples of cases with accusations of foreign military in Ukraine can be found here, here and here.

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RIA
  • Reported in: Issue 142
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 25/03/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: UK, US, Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Eastern Ukraine, Foreign mercenaries, Conspiracy theory, Terrorism
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Disinfo: The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 was a genocide

The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 – deliberately aimed at hitting all environmentally dangerous targets in order to provoke an environmental disaster throughout the region – was a genocide.

Mar 24, 2019
Disproof

NATO launched a campaign of air strikes against Serbia beginning on the 24th of March 1999 to stop Belgrade's crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. The primary purpose of the campaign was to end violence and repression and force Milosevic's to withdraw his military, police and para-military forces from Kosovo (see NATO statement from 1999). Genocide, as defined by the United Nations, means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. This was not the purpose of the NATO air strikes. Pro-Kremlin disinformation frequently distorts the number of civilian casualties of NATO bombing. See Polygraph's debunk three years ago. Read more about disinformation about the war in former Yugoslavia.

Disinfo: NATO destroyed FRY because it was preventing the Western Balkans to join the EU

Pro-Russian Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was preventing the Western Balkans to join the EU and represented an obstacle for US’ plans on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. This is the reason of NATO’s aggression against FRY.

Mar 24, 2019
Disproof

No evidence given. The primary purpose of the campaign was to end violence and repression and force Milosevic to withdraw his military, police and para-military forces from Kosovo (see NATO statement from 1999). At the North Atlantic Council meeting on April 12, 1999, NATO expressed support for the "political aims of the international community: a peaceful, multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo in which all its people can live in security and enjoy universal human rights and freedoms on an equal basis". The NATO's military intervention was not intended for the facilitation of EU integration or gas plans, but ensure that "all the countries of south-eastern Europe to enjoy peace and security". Find more disinformation narratives on NATO and Yugoslavia here.

Disinfo: NATO is a real danger in the Western Balkans and has destroyed Montenegro's army

In Montenegro, Macedonia and Bosnia NATO is seen as a weapon of the United States and a danger to the countries own security challenges. NATO expanded in 2017 to Montenegro and the consequences have been harmful. Montenegro no longer has an army to secure the Otranto Canal or the means to fight against the urgent threat from Islamic Jihadism. To the Western Balkans, NATO is the real danger.

Mar 24, 2019
Disproof

Unfounded claims on NATO. Similar cases can be found here and here. After Montenegro joined NATO, the defence spending in the country has increased with the intention of investing 2% of GDP in defence by 2024. The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro applied to NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) programme in June 2003. Montenegro declared independence on 3 June 2006, subsequently joined PfP and then NATO itself without Serbia. The reaction of the Russian government to Montenegro′s bid to join NATO had been increasingly hostile culminating in an attempt to stage a coup d'état on 16 October 2016, on the day of the parliamentary election that allegedly would have included assassination of Montenegro′s prime minister. Montenegro opened an investigation and indicted Russian GRU officers, Serbian and Montenegrin nationals.