Disinfo: Ukraine is a Western colony belonging to Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Russia

Summary

That thing that we used to call Ukraine has been a Western colony for a long time.

Poland claims rights to Halychyna and Volhynia, which were part of it from 1921 to 1939, Romania claims Bukovina and Bessarabia, Hungary claims Zakarpattia. The rest of the territory of Ukraine is Russian lands with a completely Russian population, but for some reason Russia has not yet put forward claims against the neighbouring non-state that has lost its shores, openly carrying out genocide and Ukrainization of the Russian population.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message with multiple disinformation narratives claiming that Ukraine is under external control, that Ukraine is a failed, artificial state that carries genocide of its own population, and that Ukraine does not exist as a state.

Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine is not controlled by the US or any other foreign government or organisation. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world.

Ever since the conflict broke out in 2014, pro-Kremlin coverage of Ukraine has been characterised by the liberal use of the term "genocide," taken to mean the Ukrainian government's alleged treatment of the separatist areas in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. The systematic issuing of Russian passports to citizens in the two entities is now also used as a pretext to claim the right to influence and perhaps intervene militarily. Russia is also reported to be using the occupied territories as a testing ground for new weapons. Despite all this Russia officially denies its military presence in Donbas.

Reports by the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the OHCHR found no evidence that the Russian minority in Eastern Ukraine was at risk of persecution by the Ukrainian authorities. These are bodies where Russia itself is a member.

On the other hand, there is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas. Russia is supporting its proxies with weapons, its active-duty soldiers serve there and its top military commanders visit the war zone to coordinate joint efforts with the separatists. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow will continue to support these territories.

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.

See similar disinformation cases in our database: Ukraine intends to commit genocide in the Donbas; Europe will divide Ukraine with Russia; Poland sees Ukraine as a part of its territory; Ukraine will disintegrate and fall prey to territorial claims of EU member states; Ukraine is a colony.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 244
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 15/05/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Russia
  • Keywords: Ukrainian disintegration, Ukrainian statehood, Genocide
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Disinfo: The New York Times reveals an operation against the "Deep State"

The founder of Blackwater recruited a former MI6 spy to execute the operation “Honeymoon” to eradicate the enemies of Donald Trump, The New York Times reported. According to the report, Trump’s allies were prepared to make an additional effort to focus on representatives of the “Deep State” inside the government who apparently worked to undermine the then-president.

Disproof

This disinformation piece is a deliberate distortion of the original article by The New York Times, which described a campaign by conservative activists “to discredit perceived enemies of President Trump inside the government”, including “a planned sting operation against Mr. Trump’s national security adviser at the time, H.R. McMaster, and secret surveillance operations against F.B.I. employees, aimed at exposing anti-Trump sentiment in the bureau’s ranks”.

The NYT article makes no mention of the so-called “deep state” nor affirms that these targets “apparently worked to undermine the then-president”. These distortions are intended to promote a well-established pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about global elites secretly ruling the world, and specifically a so-called ‘Deep State’ in the United States. This narrative aims to question the legitimacy of democracy and Western institutions.

Disinfo: Guaidó sees sanctions and accusations only as tools to pressure Maduro

The a recent video in which Venezuela’s Juan Guaidó offers to promote a national salvation agreement, including the government of Nicolás Maduro, starts with an apparently conciliatory tone, though there is not much love throughout the rest of it. As, for example, when he demands that Caracas comply with his demands, because otherwise sanctions and accusations of drug trafficking and crimes against humanity will continue raining on the country, which means that he rather believes in those accusations as mere tools for pressure than in the accusations themselves.

Disproof

The claim is a deliberate distortion of Juan Guaidó’s original video, which proposes a national salvation agreement based in several points.

In the fourth point, Guaidó calls for “the commitment of international community to achieve this recovery and offer incentives to the [Maduro’s] regime, including the progressive lifting of sanctions, of course conditioned to the compliance of those essential goals of the agreement”. Immediately, he adds that the negotiation process must include “guarantees for all actors, but essentially, accountability mechanisms for the regime if it tries to eschew again a negotiated solution”.

Disinfo: An illegal seizure of power took place in the US

Following France, there comes the US, some of the US military personnel write open declarations that the country has reached a dangerous point.

What is special about the “Letter of 124” is not only that it expresses doubts, obvious to everyone, about the mental usefulness of the President Joe Biden, not even that it almost directly states that an illegal seizure of power took place in the country [US], with falsification of the election results. The main thing is that the military believes that the coup continues, all the tireless activity of the Democrats “destroys the country”, that is, the democracy, that is, the US itself as such.

A creeping globalist coup throughout the West is simply destroying societies by any means, and then it suddenly turns out that a "man with a gun" can oppose this destruction too.

Disproof

The claim echoes an open letter signed by a group of 124 retired military officers in the US that has basically amounted to a partisan attack on the Democratic Party and US President Joe Biden, while repeating some of the same false claims about the 2020 presidential elections in the US.

The open letter from a group calling itself Flag Officers 4 America advanced the false conspiracy theory that the presidential vote was rigged in Biden's favour and warned that the nation is "in deep peril" from "a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights."