DISINFO: The Ukraine proxy war shows that nuclear treaties do not guarantee peace
SUMMARY
Arms control is often equated with strategic stability. But treaties do not guarantee peace. In spring 2022, while New START was still formally in force, the US openly declared its aim of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia in the Ukraine proxy conflict. At the same time, Washington proposed consultations on 'strategic stability.' In effect, the US sought to weaken a nuclear superpower in a conventional war while preserving arms control mechanisms that shielded itself from the consequences of escalation. That contradiction revealed the hollowness of the old framework.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story exploits news about the expiration of the New START nuclear treaty to advance a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative framing Ukraine’s invasion as a proxy war against Russia.
Russia is the only responsible for the war in Ukraine. Russia initiated the conflict in 2014 with its illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and through sponsoring of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, to the point of sending Russian troops to back them on the battlefield. This aggression escalated in 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which is illegal under international law and a violation of the UN Charter. In order to resist it, Ukraine has been receiving international aid from countries of all over the world in accordance with Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, a support that pro-Kremlin disinformation falsely depicts as a proxy conflict directed against Russia.
Throughout this aggression, Russia has regularly resorted to nuclear blackmail and threats to try to prevent other countries from offering help to Ukraine. After the formal expiration of the New START treaty, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that this country considers itself free of the nuclear restrictions stipulated by this agreement. Therefore, pro-Kremlin media are providing convenient explanations to justify this step, such as this disinformation story.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the West is provoking a nuclear war, that NATO destroyed trust in the New START treaty, that the change in Russia's nuclear doctrine is a direct response to NATO aggression, or that Zelenskyy is pushing the world towards a nuclear war.