Disinfo: Violations by the Ukrainian army in the Donbas are secret and nobody investigates them

Summary

Former Verkhovna Rada deputy, Alexey Zhuravko, published documents that testify to the crimes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces against the civilian population of the Donbas. Reported cases are dated from 2014-2015 and addressed to the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Stepan Poltorak. According to experts, information about the crimes of the Ukrainian military in the east of the country has become public knowledge more than once. However, analysts believe that the new government in Kyiv will not be engaged in a full-scale and comprehensive investigation of human rights violations in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about the Ukrainian army and its impunity, aggression against the civilian population in Donbas. The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine denied such allegations, noting that a sentence has been passed on each existing case, and the Main Military Prosecutor’s Office is constantly monitoring the issue of combating crimes in the conflict zone. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission documented cases of human rights violations in Donbas every year, and this information is not secret.

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russian.rt.com (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 165
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 04/09/2019
  • Outlet language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine
  • Keywords: Eastern Ukraine, War crimes, Donbas, War in Ukraine
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Disinfo: The Baltic countries are hostages of NATO ambitions

The exercise “Furious Hawk” turns the Baltic countries into NATO’s hostages. “First category” NATO countries are considering Eastern European and Baltic countries as a bridgehead for building up forces. Although all NATO statements are only about defence, the actions testify more likely to the development of offensive operations.

The Americans establish their strike groups or bases for deployment with the peoples of other countries as human shields according to a murderous algorithm. Primarily relying on the corruption of the political elites of these countries.

Sep 03, 2019
Disproof

One of the recurring Pro-Kremlin narratives Elites vs. People, describing particularly Baltic political elites as corrupt, putting their population at risk.

The NATO expansion is also a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative. NATO does not "expand" in the imperialistic sense described by the Kremlin leadership and Russian state media, but instead considers the applications of candidate countries that want to join the defensive alliance of their own national will. NATO enlargement is not directed against Russia.

Disinfo: Western leaders refused to attend the anniversary of WWII in Poland because Putin was not invited

Celebratory events devoted to the outbreak of World War II were held in Poland. The ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) decided to use this important date for a political demonstration and hold an informal summit of the leaders of Western democracies. The government of Poland decided not to invite the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin and it resulted in a failure of their ‘genius’ plan: none of the leaders of Europe, the United States, China, Japan, other countries of Asia-Pacific, Belarus, Armenia, or other countries of the post-Soviet space attended the celebrations. However, presidents of Ukraine and Georgia did fly to Warsaw.

Sep 03, 2019
Disproof

The claim is not true. In fact, high-ranking representatives of invited countries attended the commemorative events in different Polish cities to mark the 80th anniversary of WWII. On September 1, the event devoted to the 80-year anniversary of the outbreak of World War II took place in Wieluń, Poland. It was opened with speeches from the President of Poland Andrzej Duda and the President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The event went on in Warsaw and was attended by the Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel, American Vice-president Mike Pence, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab, French PM Édouard Philippe, Lithuanian President Nausėda Gitanas, Latvian President Egils Levits, Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Czech President Miloš Zeman, Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová, Hungarian President János Áder, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, Iceland’s President Gudni Jóhannesson, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mammadguliyev, and others. Another event took place in Westerplatte, which was attended by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans. See here for other disinformation cases about Poland commemorating the anniversary of the World War II outbreak.

Disinfo: The US are colonising Poland, aggression now comes from Washington

Tensions since the end of the USSR come from Moscow. It is the United States that are literally colonising Poland. Everyone knows geography. There is natural gas that costs less. Yet the Poles – for some reason – buy the gas ten times farther than where it is produced in an abominably anti-ecological way in the United States and which is much more expensive. They are literally forced to buy American equipment. There is also an over-presence of US military forces. The Poles, unfortunately for them, were under Soviet influence and now they are under the influence of the United States.

Sep 03, 2019
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying the US as a puppeteer and occupier of other countries, Poland among them. "Colonisation” refers to methods of absorbing and assimilating foreign people into the culture of the imperial country, populating them, imposing unfair trade, banning their local culture and language. The fact of buying gas in the US cannot be considered as colonisation. Poland, as a sovereign country, makes its own decisions as to where to buy gas. As for NATO (not US) troops, around 5,000 troops already rotate in and out of Poland. This is part of a 2016 NATO agreement. No intervention of these NATO forces in Polish internal political process, banning of Polish language or settlement of Americans or any other options except defensive are considered. Thus, Poland cannot be called a not independent state or a colony. See more disinformation cases on Poland and NATO.