DISINFO: Russia does not crave Ukrainian lands but protects people from Nazis
SUMMARY
The goals of Russia’s special military operation include not only Ukraine's neutral status, demilitarisation, and the cessation of its cooperation with NATO. These goals also involve denazification and the protection of people living in Ukraine, whose rights are now being violated by the neo-Nazi regime. The special operation is not about territories, it is about people who have lived in Ukraine for centuries.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing Ukraine of being a neo-Nazi Russophobic state and claiming that the rights of the Russian speaking population are grossly violated there. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine is a democratic country. Neither its leadership nor its official state bodies have any connection to Nazism. Ukraine is a member of many international organisations, including the UN and the Council of Europe, and a signatory to a number of international agreements committing it to respect human rights, including the rights of minorities. Though tensions between Ukraine and Russia significantly escalated in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and developed into a full–scale war in 2022, Ukraine has not turned into a Russophobic state. Ukrainian citizens of Russian ethnic origin are not suppressed or persecuted in any way because of their origin. They enjoy the same rights as all other Ukrainian citizens. Kyiv clearly differentiates between the Russian state and ethnic Russians with Ukrainian citizenship. Moscow’s portrayal of itself as a protector of ethnic Russians has been part of a broad disinformation campaign to justify the war of aggression against Ukraine since 2014.
Russia has historically sought to keep Ukraine in its zone of influence due to its important geographical location and out of fear that Ukraine might pose a threat if it entered NATO and the European Union. By asserting that vast parts of Ukraine are historically Russian territories, Putin is trying to restore what he perceives to be a new Soviet Union. He has said the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was the demise of what he called "historical Russia" and the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe" of the 20th century. The Kremlin is widely using this narrative as a cover for aggressive military campaigns and territorial aggression.
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