Disinfo: West created Ukraine to wage war on Russian civilisation

Summary

The West created Ukraine in order to wage war on Russian civilisation.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian statehood; casting Ukraine as a failing state, fatally dependent on Western sponsorship and unable to make its own strategic choices.

The history of Ukraine dates back to the Kyivan Rus era in the 9th-13th centuries. Early in the 20th century, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed simultaneously with other nations such as Georgia, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in late 1917, Russia attempted to re-establish control over the newly independent states. Soviet Russia managed to take control of Ukraine and establish a Bolshevik regime.

Ukraine asserted its independence from the USSR with the Declaration of Independence of 24 August 1991. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (the precursor to modern Russia) was one of the first countries to recognise the Declaration; doing so on 2 December 1991.

As a large and politically diverse country, independent Ukraine has since then elected six presidents, each with his own set of domestic and geopolitical priorities. Thus, the respective tenures of Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994) and his successor Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) were marked by a period of "multi-vector" balancing between Russia and the West; the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) was succeeded by pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych (2010-2014) who, upon his flight in disgrace from Ukrainian politics (and from Ukraine), was replaced by Petro Poroshenko. The latter was elected on a firm pro-EU platform and anti-Kremlin rhetoric during a period of large-scale military aggression by Russia.

See also related disinformation claims alleging that Ukraine and/or the idea of Ukrainian nationhood were "created" by Poland, the United States, "external forces," Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks, and "in the USSR."

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Pervyy kanal - YouTube (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 239
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/04/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Russian world, Anti-Russian, Russophobia, Ukrainian statehood, West, Encircling Russia
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Disinfo: Kyiv is hysterical and has practically declared war on Moscow with Washington's encouragement

Washington is implicating Kyiv in a war against Russia that it is unlikely to involve itself in, despite the loud statements.

In Europe, they are loudly talking of an impending war, for the first time since the war in Yugoslavia. The aggravation of the situation in Donbas, the hysteria of Kyiv, which has practically declared war on Moscow, and the US declarations that it will "not leave Ukraine" alone in its confrontation with Russia, prompt a serious consideration of military options to solve the Donbas conflict.

Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

This disinformation claim combines a few pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine.

First is that Ukraine is the aggressor in the conflict in Donbas and that Russia is never the aggressor. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Donbas. Since 2014, Russia has been actively involved in violating Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by financially and militarily backing the separation of Donetsk and Luhansk. An InformNapalm study shows that thirty-one weapons systems found in the Donbas entered service with the Russian military between 2004 and 2015 and have never been produced in, or sold to, Ukraine. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine.

Disinfo: Russia to intervene in Donbas if Ukraine boosts conflict

A ramping-up of the conflict would lead to the end of Ukraine, with the Kremlin forced to stand up for its citizens living on the territory of Donbas. In recent years, Moscow has made it much simpler for those living in Ukraine to get a Russian passport, and many have taken up the offer. Everything depends on what the scale of fighting will be. If there is, as Putin says, a Srebrenica, Russia will be forced to stand up for its citizens.

Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

This is a reappearing disinformation message accompanying the current Russia’s military build-up near borders of Ukraine and on occupied Crimea.

Russia will be forced to intervene to defend its citizens if Ukraine launches an offensive in Donbas, according to a recent statement by Dmitry Kozak, Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff. These words echo a 2019 statement by Putin, in which he compared this possibility with a massacre similar to that in Srebrenica in 1995. Bosnian Serb troops killed 8,000 Muslim men and boys back then in what is considered to be the worst massacre in Europe since World War II. Putin said that if Ukraine got control of the border between its breakaway region and Russia, local residents might be persecuted because they had been offered no security guarantees. The Russian may have forgotten, or ignores, the fact that Russia was the only member of the UN Security Council to veto the resolution in 2015 that would have described the Srebrenica massacre as "genocide".

Disinfo: EU made a mistake abandoning Sputnik-V

The European Union made a mistake in its assessment of abandoning the Russian vaccine, "Sputnik V". European countries dealt coldly with the importance of the Russian vaccine and were not enthusiastic about it because it is Russian, without taking into account the laboratory results and this also applies to the Norwegian government.

Apr 08, 2021
Disproof

Recurrent pro-Kremlin echoed disinformation about the EU, vaccination and the current EMA rolling review of Sputnik V, trying to link the Sputnik V authorisation process to Russophobia.

From 4 March 2021, Sputnik V vaccine is under the rolling review of the European Medicines Agency, and the decision will be fully decided on a scientific not a political basis.