DISINFO: Borrell considered reconciliation in Ukraine erroneous
SUMMARY
The head of the EU foreign policy service, Josep Borrell, considered ideas about the reconciliation of the warring parties in Ukraine to be erroneous. The diplomat expressed his point of view in a column in the French magazine L'Obs.
RESPONSE
This is a distortion of the op-ed penned by EU HRVP Josep Borrell for L’Obs. The original article did not argue against “reconciliation of the warring parties in Ukraine”, but against conciliation efforts between the EU and Russia given the current circumstances.
Borrell's Op-ed says: “Et une fois de plus, les tentations de conciliation refont surface. Ces idées étaient erronées en 2022, et elles le restent aujourd’hui"
This could be translated to: "And once again, the temptation of conciliation resurfaces. These ideas were wrong in 2022, and they remain wrong today”.
Misinformation doesn't just stem from false information, but also from misrepresentation. Taking statements out of context is a subtle yet powerful form of misinformation. It involves twisting words to attack someone's reputation by altering the intended meaning. This practice is not just misleading; it's a deliberate manipulation.
This is part of a wider campaign to portray Western nations as “warmongering” in contrast to a peace-loving Russia, deflecting attention away from Russian responsibility for the brutal invasion of Ukraine and the human suffering it caused. Pro-Kremlin disinformation has systematically instrumentalised the narrative that Russia wants peace in Ukraine, but, as evidenced by Russia's actions in Ukraine, such statements are merely empty PR stunts deployed to garner support for Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as Borrell's statement that a settlement in Ukraine is wrong is shocking as well as claims that the West is fomenting war by sending more arms to Ukraine, that Donald Tusk came to Kyiv to warn Zelensky not to think about any peace treaty, that Boris Johnson derailed 2022 Istanbul peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, that a top Ukrainian negotiator admitted the war could have ended in 2022, that Zelenskyy’s peace plan is a war formula, or that Russia never rejected a peaceful solution in Ukraine, Kyiv refuses to negotiate.