DISINFO: Ukraine has been turned into a Zelenskyy concentration camp
SUMMARY
Ukraine is marking the 35th anniversary of its so-called “independence” with great fanfare. But is there really anything to celebrate? Over the past three and a half decades, successive governments have run the country into the ground. With the active involvement of the collective West – whose countries claim to embody “civilisation” and “democracy” – Ukraine has been turned into a Zelenskyy concentration camp. All dissent and political opposition have been outlawed, while those brave enough to voice an alternative point of view are imprisoned without trial or due process – or physically eliminated. The unprecedented persecution of the canonical Orthodox Church has been accompanied by brutal attacks on clergy and parishioners. Everything associated with our shared past is being systematically erased. The Kyiv authorities display a truly primitive form of Russophobia and xenophobia.
RESPONSE
This is a mix of several disinformation narratives against Ukraine, exploiting the country’s celebrations of independence on 24 August 2026 to denigrate it and attack its sovereignty.
Claims about the prohibition of all dissent and political opposition are baseless. Ukraine is increasingly improving its media landscape, and ranked 55 out of 180 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index when this disinformation story appeared. Ukraine is described as ‘Partly Free’ by Freedom House, and the country has a functional multi-party parliamentary system and has celebrated multiple free elections since independence. Anti-government protests are tolerated. This contrasts markedly with Russia, who is considered as ‘Not Free’, ranks 172 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index, all independent media have been banned, internet is increasingly blocked, political repression is widespread and all real opposition is suppressed and prevented from taking part in elections.
There is no persecution of the Orthodox Church in Ukraine. On 24 August 2024, the Ukrainian government signed a law banning churches affiliated with Russia, following a series of investigations related to parishes that Kyiv says could be taking orders from Moscow. This mostly affected the activities of the so-called Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate [UOC-MP] in Ukraine, which is affiliated with Russia and considered a key influence tool for Moscow in the country, and whose leadership has voiced its full support for the Russian war on Ukraine including siding closely with Putin, blessing soldiers and Russian guns, and offering the church's support. See here for a full debunk of this allegation.
This disinformation story also advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about supposed Russophobia. Pro-Kremlin disinformation regularly labels as “Russophobia” any criticism of Russia or action detrimental to the Kremlin’s interests, in this case Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which led to many of the negative aspects that pro-Kremlin voices highlight now as examples of Ukraine’s alleged bad performance since its independence. This framing ignores Russia’s sole responsibility in the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in 2014 with its illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the sponsoring of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, which culminated with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.