Disinfo: Ukraine is under the external control of the US

Summary

Ukraine need to play along with the Americans. They must do everything the United States like because it is they who introduced external control, which Mr. Zelenskyy is not ready to fight.

Disproof

No evidence given. Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the EU and US relations with Ukraine. Ukraine is a sovereign state. The relations between the US and Ukraine are bilateral relations between two independent countries. The USA recognised Ukraine as an independent state on 25th December 1991. U.S. policy is centred on realising and strengthening a stable, democratic, prosperous, and free Ukraine more closely integrated into Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures.

publication/media

  • Reported in: Issue 152
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26/05/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: US, Ukraine
  • Keywords: Ukraine
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Disinfo: Poroshenko instigated the provocation in Kerch Strait to extend his power

Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s ex-president and the author of the provocation in the Kerch Strait, used the conflict to impose martial law in the country and extend his powers.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation on Ukraine and Azov Sea. On November 25, border patrol boats belonging to Russia’s FSB security service seized two small Ukrainian armoured artillery vessels and their crews after shooting at them, wounding several Ukrainian servicemen. Russia argued that they were in Russian waters. However, a bilateral treaty between Russia and Ukraine, signed in 2003 and ratified by Russia in 2004 governs the use of the Kerch strait and the Sea of Azov. The agreement states this stretch to be the “internal waters” of both Russia and Ukraine.

Disinfo: The decision of the UN Tribunal for the Ukrainian sailors is illegitimate

The decision of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea to free Ukrainian sailors, whom Russia seized together with ships in the Kerch Strait in 2018, is illegitimate. This incident is not under the jurisdiction of the International Tribunal.

Disproof

This is another piece of Russian propagandafake about the seizure by Russia of Ukrainian sailors in the Kerch Strait on 25 November 2018. The International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea is an independent judicial body that deals with legal disputes based on the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Russia's seizure of warships and military personnel violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and customary international law, which guarantees the full immunity of naval ships and their personnel. At a meeting in Hamburg on 25 May, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release 24 captured Ukrainian servicemen, and also to return to the control of Ukraine warships Berdyansk, Nikopol and Yany-Kapu. The court also stated that it did not find evidence of the Russian version of a provocation by Ukraine in the Kerch Strait.