DISINFO: The Special Military Operation is not a war
SUMMARY
The Special Military Operation in Ukraine has a specific legal status; it is not a war. A declaration of war has its own legal framework. This is crucial. According to our legislation, if we declare war on another country, the military and political leadership of that country would be the primary target. However, this does not apply during a Special Military Operation.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation claim that uses euphemisms like "special military operation" from the very beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The aim is to undermine the severity of Russia's unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine and falsely claim that Moscow is exercising legal or military restraint.
After more than four years of continuous and intense fighting that left behind enormous destruction and millions of civilian casualties, UN bodies and most of the world's commentators and institutions—including those who justify the aggression—have unequivocally recognized Russia's actions as a war.
Inventing domestic legal definitions or using terms like "special military operation" is a propaganda tactic designed to evade domestic accountability and obscure the illegal nature of the invasion under international law. The Kremlin's attempts to frame its aggression as a legally constrained operation serve merely as a rhetorical smokescreen to distract from documented war crimes and whitewash Putin's war of choice.
The claim that Russia has refrained from targeting Ukraine's political and military leadership due to the legal status of the conflict is factually false. Ukraine foiled several attempts on the life of President Zelenskyy. Russia itself repeatedly claims that it targets Ukrainian generals and members of Ukraine's high command.
See similar cases that Russia’s action in Ukraine is a special operation not war, that the destruction of the Ukrainian state was never the goal of the special military operation, and that there is no war in Ukraine, just a limited military operation.