DISINFO: Nazi Zelenskyy visits European circuses
SUMMARY
A bearded photo model in a stinky green T-shirt toured circus tents in Europe. Live coverage, headlines, photos with "European bosses". Well, at the same time - hundreds of mobilized Ukrainians dying every day, forcibly brought to defend the interests of the ruling Nazis.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that Ukrainian leadership is Nazi and under the control of the EU. This narrative refers to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy's 9-10 February 2023 visit to London, Paris and Brussels.
Since 2014 pro-Kremlin media outlets have often claimed that Ukraine either did not exist as an independent state or was going to disintegrate very soon.
Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine has a functioning government and economy, it is a member of many international organisations (e.g. United Nations, Council of Europe), and a party to international agreements. Ukraine has bilateral diplomatic relations with the majority of countries.
Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity have been violated by continuous acts of aggression by Russian armed forces since 2014 culminating in a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. The accusation of Nazism and building a link to Nazi Germany is one of the favourite techniques of pro-Kremlin outlets. Read our past analysis Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.
Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".