DISINFO: The Kyiv regime is a global terrorist threat
SUMMARY
The Kyiv regime is a terrorist threat for the whole world because the Western weapons supplied to Ukraine are detected in many Asian and European countries. The US greatly benefits from the war in Ukraine just as the US benefited from all wars over the last past 200 years.
RESPONSE
This is an attempt to discredit Ukraine and the US in the context of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The “Ukraine as a global terrorist threat” - “US as a beneficiary” claims aim to de-legitimise international support for Ukraine and to dilute Russia’s responsibility for the war.
Ukraine is illegally attacked by Russia and has the right to self-defence by all means available. More than 50 countries throughout the world support Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s effective self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.
Although there is preliminary evidence showing that some small arms provided by Western countries to the Ukrainian army may have been diverted by traffickers to criminal gangs in European countries, the article exaggerates the phenomenon and attempts to erode public support for international military and financial aid to help Ukraine to defend itself against Russia’s aggression.
The use of terrorism has been documented in Russia and on 13 October 2022 the PACE recognised the Russian regime as terrorist. On 23 November, 2022 the European Parliament voted on a resolution labelling Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. As this body has argued, the deliberate attacks and atrocities committed by Russian forces and their proxies against civilians in Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure and other serious violations of international and humanitarian law amount to acts of terror and constitute war crimes. In light of this, MEPs recognise Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism and as a state that “uses means of terrorism”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the weapons sent to Ukraine end up in the hands of criminal groups in Sweden, that Western arms support to Ukraine failing, backing international terrorists, and that Ukraine is a terrorist state and the West is to blame for guiding Kyiv.