Disinfo: Ukraine controls territories belonging to other countries

Summary

Ukraine exists within unnatural borders. Transcarpathia should be ceded to Hungary, Galicia to Poland, Bukovina to Romania, Donbas and Crimea to Russia. These are other countries' territories.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives claiming that Ukraine has other countries’ territories which should be ceded to their rightful owners. This is a cynical attempt to indirectly draw other countries into Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Poland, Hungary, and Romania respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. They do not pretend on Ukrainian territories and do not claim them. No neighbouring state, except the Russian Federation, has tried to violate Ukraine's territorial integrity. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world with Russia as the key exception. Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity have been violated by continuous acts of aggression by Russian armed forces since 2014 and culminated in an aggressive attack on a neighbouring country on February 24, 2022.

See the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine here along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.

See earlier disinformation cases alleging that Poles are stoking nationalist sentiment in Ukraine in order to annex Lviv, that Poland thinks that Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and South-Western Lithuania belong to them, that Poland wants to dismember Ukraine and re-establish a Polish empire, that Ukraine will disintegrate and fall prey to territorial claims of EU member states, that Ukraine is a Western colony belonging to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Russia.

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publication/media

oroszhirek.hu (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 310
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 23/09/2022
  • Article language(s) Hungarian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia, Romania, Poland, Hungary
  • Keywords: Invasion of Ukraine, Territorial dispute, Coup, Euromaidan, Crimea
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Disinfo: Referendums are a response to Zelenskyy's call for Russians to get out of Ukraine

Referendums in Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions are a response to Zelenskyy's call for Russians to get out of Ukraine. What has been happening in Ukraine since 2014 is impunity. [Ukraine] finally turned into a totalitarian state of the Nazi persuasion. The Russian Federation has a lot of evidence of the criminal actions of the Ukrainian military.

Sep 22, 2022
Disproof

The referenda in Ukrainian regions will have no international legal force and have already been condemned in the strongest terms by world leaders including EU High Representative Josep Borrell. Тhis is not the free will of the people, but part of the aggressive annexation policy of Russia. Soldiers were going door-to-door in occupied parts of the country to collect votes for self-styled "referendums" on joining Russia, according to the BBC report.

The European Union strongly condemns these planned illegal “referenda” which go against the legal and democratically elected Ukrainian authorities, are in violation of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and in blatant breach of international law. The results of such actions will be null and void and would not be recognised by the EU and its Member States. The intention to annex territories occupied by force since February 2022 and to hold sham referenda will not change their legal status. They are and they will remain internationally recognised as an integral part of Ukraine.

Disinfo: The OSCE hushed up the crimes of the Kyiv regime, encouraging it to new atrocities

The leadership of the OSCE, systematically hushing up the crimes of the Kyiv regime, is pushing it to commit new atrocities. We are forced to point this out publicly: ignoring the victims of Ukrainian shelling among civilians is no longer an unfortunate omission on the part of the OSCE leadership - it has acquired the character of a systemic hushing up of crimes.

Sep 22, 2022
Disproof

This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin media accusing the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) of being biased towards Ukraine.

Pro-Kremlin media often use the method of denigrating and defaming international organisations such as the OSCE, Council of Europe, WHO, WADA, OPCW or the United Nations, portraying those as anti-Russian, Russophobic and practicing double standards.

Disinfo: The referendums in Ukraine is the beginning, Russia has to get Kyiv back

A new phase of Ukraine-Russia reunification is coming. Once Moscow supports the results of referendums in D/LPR, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, other phases will follow. The time of Kyiv’s ultimate capitulation takes place will depend on Russian military successes. It may take years, but no other option than complete victory will satisfy Russia. It needs to restore the historic unity and deprive geopolitical enemies of the slightest possibility to extend threats from Russian lands such as Odesa.

The most significant reason why Russia attacked Ukraine back in February is that Russia would not have survived if it did not extend beyond its current borders. Russia cannot tolerate that Russians in their historical cradle (Kyiv, Malorossiya, and Novorossiya) are de-russified and turned into anti-Russians. Russia could not silently observe the events in the western part of the Russian world and decided to get Ukraine back.

Sep 22, 2022
Disproof

This article is part of the pro-Kremlin disinformation ecosystem's attempt to justify Russia’s occupation in parts of Ukraine via illegitimate referenda and to distract from the war crimes committed by Russian invaders in the now-liberated territories of Ukraine. It offers an absurd interpretation of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine with the use of the classic disinformation narrative about the Russian world.

Further, the claim rejects the right of Ukraine to exist as a sovereign state and speaks of the Russo-Ukrainian war as part of Russian history and the “reunification”.