DISINFO: NATO wants to devour Ukraine while seizing extra lands around Russia
SUMMARY
… During that time, NATO would take upon itself, unilaterally, historical responsibilities and transformations with regard to the security in the European continent, with freedom of movement and expansion, and the seizing of new territories for the alliance, in addition to pressuring Russia for the purpose of confining it in its Eurasian surroundings, and continuous attempts to break it up into smaller entities, that are still present until this day.
Despite the commitments of NATO after World War II not to expand to the East, the number of countries that joined the alliance since 1949 until today has increased from 12 countries to 30 countries. The geography expanded to include the attempts to devour the "last fruit" in Ukraine, 600 km away from the Kremlin to the southwest, and to try to destabilise Belarus located almost the same distance to the west.
RESPONSE
Multiple recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives alleging that NATO is encircling Russia by “expanding” to the East while adopting anti-Russian policies; also claiming that the alliance is belligerent towards Belarus and Ukraine.
This so-called commitment not to “expand/annex/seize” does not exist. NATO members have never made any political or legally binding commitments not to enlarge the Alliance.
The narrative shows a broad interpretation of agreements between NATO and Russia. The NATO-Russian Founding Act (1997) has a statement that "NATO will carry out its collective defence and other missions through interoperability, integration and capability for reinforcement rather than by additional permanent stationing of substantial combat forces on the territory of new members". In the meantime, in the document, it is stressed: "The Act makes clear that Russia has no veto over alliance decisions and NATO retains the right to act independently when it so chooses".
Rather than “expanding”, NATO considers the applications of candidate countries who want to join based on their own national will. NATO's "Open Door Policy" is based on Article 10 of the Alliance's founding document, the North Atlantic Treaty (1949).
Furthermore, the claim that NATO is encircling Russia is one of the most famous myths that ignores geography. Russia's land border is just over 20,000 kilometres long. Of that, less than one-sixteenth (1,215 kilometres), is shared with NATO members. Russia has land borders with 14 countries. Only five of them are NATO members. In contrast, Russia has military bases and soldiers in three countries – Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine – without the consent of their governments.
The Brussel Summit Communique, presented after the meeting of NATO heads in Belgium on 14 June 2021, reaffirmed, that "NATO does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia. Decisions we have taken are fully consistent with our international commitments, and therefore cannot be regarded by anyone as contradicting the NATO-Russia Founding Act."
Moving on, NATO doesn’t have any plans to “devour” Ukraine nor destabilize Belarus. The Brussels Summit Communique further stated:
"We reiterate the decision made at the 2008 Bucharest Summit that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance with the Membership Action Plan (MAP) as an integral part of the process; we reaffirm all elements of that decision, as well as subsequent decisions, including that each partner will be judged on its own merits".
See more cases in our database with claims that the goal of NATO military exercise is to kill Russians; or that the West pursues an anti-Russian campaign to destabilise Russia; or that NATO wants to create an anti-Russian "belt"; or that Western policies plan to stage colour revolutions in Russia’s neighbourhood.