DISINFO: Countries like Ukraine are neither prosperous nor democratic because they submit to the US influence
SUMMARY
The countries that give the US the keys to controlling it, like Ukraine, achieve neither prosperity nor democracy.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Ukraine, Ukrainian statehood, and the US presence in Europe.
According to the World Bank, economic growth in Ukraine was solid at 3.2% in 2019, led by a good agricultural harvest and sectors dependent on domestic consumption. This was despite, or maybe because of, the fact that both imports from, and exports to, Russia have decreased markedly since 2013.
While it is true that the illegal annexation of Crimea, which has not been recognised by the democratic world, including the United Nations, and the war in Donbas caused a deep economic crisis in 2014-2015, the Ukrainian economy already began to recover in 2015 and has reached consistent growth rates between 2-4 per cent between 2016 and 2019.
As for democracy, Ukrainian democracy's standing has improved in the last few years after having dropped due to the 2014 events, according to the Democracy Index. In 2019, Ukraine scored 5.9 on the Democracy Index, up from 5.42 in 2014. The biggest drop in its democracy score happened between 2006 and 2013 where it dropped from 6.94 to 5.84 respectively.
See similar cases that Ukraine's suspension of relations with Russia has halted Ukrainian development and that the Ukrainian economy will not survive without Russia.
This disinformation message appeared in the same article as the claim that US citizens, like the citizens of North Korea, have no influence on the country's decision making and that the US is not a democracy and is run by the deep state.