DISINFO: EU and NATO prepare for new war and expansion
SUMMARY
All the efforts of the Euro-Atlantic community are focused on preparing a new war. Germany, France and Britain are leading the way. The European Union has become an integral part of Euro-Atlantic policy. There is no doubt about that. The EU is offering its territory for NATO’s plans to expand eastward, southward, or wherever else. All these Euro-Atlantic structures have ultimately failed. They have not succeeded in strengthening security or stability. What they have achieved is fuelling tensions and remilitarising Europe, including Germany, despite the ongoing deterioration of the economic and social situation.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story aims to portray the EU and the UK as a warmongering, anti-Russian and militaristic expansionist geopolitical power.
This recurrent claim is made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It seeks to whitewash and shift the blame for the aggression away from Russia.
The ongoing increase in defence spending across the EU is explained by Russia's actions – the annexation of Crimea, the War in Donbas and the 2022 large-scale unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
On 4 March 2025, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced a new plan to enhance Europe’s defence capabilities. "This set of proposals focuses on how to use all of the financial levers at our disposal to help Member States to quickly and significantly increase expenditures in defence capabilities. Urgently now but also over a longer time over this decade”, explained Ursula von der Leyen. The ReArm Europe plan does not involve attacking Russia or any other country.
It was Russia that launched its unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine in 2022. Before that, in 2014, Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and instigated a separatist proxy war in the country’s east.
Russia continues to reject genuine peace efforts, based on international law. This narrative seeks to deflect attention from Russia's violations of international law and its perpetration of war crimes. By portraying the EU and the UK as warmongers, pro-Kremlin outlets attempt to justify Russia’s actions and present its territorial expansionism as forced defensive actions.
This message is part of a wider disinformation campaign framing possible US-Russia negotiations as the only acceptable ‘peace initiative’ regardless of Russia’s ultimatums, while denying any agency to Ukraine or its other allies. Pro-Kremlin disinformation has long tried to misrepresent the EU as the main obstacle for ‘peace’ in Ukraine.
Further, the notion by Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, that EU and NATO 'expand' or 'swallow' states neglects the basic fact that EU and NATO accepts new members based on them voluntarily seeking and applying for membership.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that NATO plans to attack Russia, that At the behest of the US, Germany is preparing to attack Russia, that The EU is preparing a war against Russia led by Germany, that ReArm Europe means the EU is preparing to attack Russia, that Europe justifies the increasing defence budgets with “belligerent” Moscow, that Macron, Starmer and Merz want war, that Macron, Starmer, Zelensky and Tusk need a war in Ukraine to stay in power, that Merz, Macron and Von der Leyen want to wage total war against Russia, that French President Macron has practically declared war on Russia.