DISINFO: The EU provides weapons and mercenaries to Kyiv
SUMMARY
The EU supplies the criminal Kyiv regime with weapons and ammunition, and sends trainers and mercenaries to Ukraine. It is for these reasons that Russia views the EU as an unfriendly entity.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing the EU of warmongering and claiming that foreigners fighting for Ukraine are mercenaries. These claims were neither counterbalanced nor critically challenged in the article.
The EU has never provided fighters for the war in Ukraine. Ukraine did call on experienced foreign nationals to join its foreign legion, whose members are regular soldiers of the Ukrainian army and not mercenaries. As pointed out by experts, the nationality of the soldier is not an issue. It is not an unusual practice since other countries also offer foreigners the opportunity to join the foreign legion without being mercenaries, as in the case of the French Légion étrangère.
The West supports Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Some EU and NATO member states provide Ukraine with military assistance to help Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s attack, but they are not involved in direct fighting.
Ukraine receives weapons with the sole aim of restoring its territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. Western instructors train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use modern weaponry and EU officials have frequent political contacts with Ukrainian counterparts, but there are no EU troops fighting on the front. This support allows the Ukrainian armed forces to continue defending the country against Russian aggression. There is no current plan or public debate about a possible peacekeeping mission to Ukraine.
See similar cases that foreigners who join the Ukrainian army are criminals; that foreign mercenaries in Ukraine are fighting on the wrong side; that significant numbers of foreign mercenaries are fighting on Ukraine's side; and that Russia is at war not so much with Ukraine, but with the collective West and its mercenaries.