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Disinfo: Ukraine is sold in parts to the West

Summary

Ukraine is sold in parts to the West. The Ukrainian government sold the country’s main railway company, Ukrzaliznytsia, to Germany.

External governance, hidden under the guise of reforms initiated by external actors, result in the obvious – the loss of sovereignty, territories, and the state as such.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine is a failed, disintegrating state with no sovereignty and under Western control.

Ukraine has not “sold” or “handed out pieces” of its main transport company to Western partners. During the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 22 January 2020, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk announced that German national rail operator Deutsche Bahn had signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure. According to Honcharuk, the memorandum does not even speak about the “sale or lease of such a strategically important state object, but rather that German specialists will advise on the reorganisation of Ukrzaliznytsia.” At the same time, Deutsche Bahn specified: the management of Ukrzaliznytsia will remain in the hands of the state, and “the engineering and consulting company Deutsche Bahn on infrastructure, mobile and transport projects will advise and support the Ukrainian railway in business and technical matters."

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  • Reported in: Issue 186
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 03/02/2020
  • Language/target audience: Russian
  • Country: Ukraine, Germany
  • Keywords: economy, Ukrainian disintegration, Sovereignty, The West
  • Outlet: Ukraina.ru; Riafan.ru; Regnum.ru
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In Ukraine anti-Semitism, racism, nationalism and xenophobia flourish. But the Ukrainian authorities refuse to admit it.

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This is the Kremlin’s systematic disinformation campaign that anti-Semitism in Ukraine is on the rise and that Ukraine is a Nazi state.

The Israeli government’s annual report on anti-Semitism in the world says that by the end of 2018, Ukraine recorded a low incidence of intolerance towards Jews. Moreover, the report presented in 2019 by the Israeli Minister for Diaspora Relations, Naftali Bennett, states that “the anti-Semitic incidents in Ukraine were inspired by outsider forces hostile to Ukraine, aimed at discrediting Ukraine in the eyes of the global community” (p. 72).

Poland’s government throws itself into disgusting Holocaust revisionism

As a consequence of the obsession with Russia, Poland’s government throws itself into disgusting Holocaust revisionism. The present Polish government refused to give the Soviet Union any credit for the liberation of Auschwitz and instead insisted that Poland was nothing but an innocent victim of the Nazis and the Soviets.

[Polish president Andrzej] Duda’s Party “Prawo i Sprawiedliwość” (PiS) even lobbied the EU Parliament to present this as a historical fact in a declaration – to the wrath of Russia, where this is seen as spitting on the graves of almost 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the war against the Hitler regime and of about 600,000 soldiers who gave their lives especially for the liberation of Poland.

Warsaw went so far as to completely ignore the 75th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis and instead to call this day the beginning of the “occupation” by the USSR. The new record-breaking low point, however, was certainly the opinion article published by Politico, in which Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that the Soviets had deliberately halted Polish advance in the summer of 1944 instead of advancing the liberation of Warsaw or Auschwitz.

February 02, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative distorting the events of the World War II.

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February 02, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the West/ NATO threatening or encircling Russia and the US-led military exercise "Defender-Europe 2020", which is not aimed or targeted at Russia. US Major General Andrew Rohling Deputy Commanding General for the US Army in Europe, informs that the US-led exercise "Defender 2020" is an American exercise with 18 NATO partner countries. Rohling emphasises that the aim of the exercise is not to target any country, but rather to test strategic readiness and how to react to a crisis.

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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.