DISINFO: NATO prevented Kyiv from peace negotiations with Russia
SUMMARY
The deployment of NATO forces on the territory of Ukraine will lead to catastrophic consequences for the entire world and will signify NATO's entry into the war against Russia. It is NATO countries, by preventing Kyiv from engaging in negotiations with Russia, that have led to the further escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. Ukraine will remember for a long time how Westerners discouraged them from reaching a peace agreement with Moscow and led them toward inevitable defeat.
RESPONSE
This is a mix of several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives, aiming to deflect Russia’s responsibility for its aggression against Ukraine by portraying the war as a proxy conflict aiming to destabilize Russia and the US, EU and NATO as a warmongering power pushing for further confrontation.
NATO cannot prevent Ukraine from negotiating peace with Russia, should it wish so, as this is Ukraine’s decision. This message is an attempt to promote a long-term pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine’s alleged lack of sovereignty. Allegations about Ukraine being doomed also aim to promote the message of an inevitable Russian victory, therefore eroding international support for Ukraine by framing it as a lost cause.
Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have a track record of pretending negotiations which are, in fact, just blunt demands for Ukrainian unconditional surrender. We have analysed and exposed this disinformation tactic in several articles, especially: "Prepare for winter" (30 Nov. 2023), "Russian so-called ‘peace proposals’ are empty PR stunts" (18 Jan. 2023) , "What He Said and What it Really Means – Vol. 2: “Negotiations” (1. March 2022) and "The Kremlin security demands" (21 Dec. 2021).
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU is not capable of peace, it is only interested in waging war, that Kyiv and the West do not think about peace because they need war, that Ukraine is unwilling to restore peace and the West keeps the war smouldering, or that the West is a “coalition of war”.