DISINFO: Crimea incident confirms that Russia is surrounded by enemies
SUMMARY
The (Crimea) incident helped the Kremlin to confirm the narrative that Russia is surrounded by enemies.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative that Russia is being encircled at the same time portraying NATO’s military exercises as security threats.
The claim that NATO is encircling Russia is one of the myths pushed about NATO.
Russia's land border is just over 20,000 kilometres long. Of that, less than one-sixteenth (1,215 kilometres), is shared with NATO members. Russia has land borders with 14 countries. Only five of them are NATO members.
Outside NATO territory, the Alliance only has a military presence in two places: Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Sea Breeze is a multinational military exercise that has been held in Ukraine since 1997 in order to enhance its defensive capability and to bring the Ukrainian fleet closer to NATO standards. This year’s Sea Breeze exercises are taking place from June 28 to July 10 2021 in the Black Sea region and have led to a flood of accusations about their intent from pro-Kremlin media.
NATO poses no threat to Russia, and this was reaffirmed by all allies in the Brussels Summit Communiqué of 2021:
"NATO does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to Russia. Decisions we have taken are fully consistent with our international commitments, and therefore cannot be regarded by anyone as contradicting the NATO-Russia Founding Act".
Furthermore, the so-called "incident" referred to in the article didn't really occur. On 23 June 2021, the UK Royal Navy was conducting innocent passage through Ukrainian territorial waters in accordance with international law." The ship, HMS Defender, carried out a routine transit from Odesa towards Georgia across the Black Sea through internationally recognised Ukrainian territorial waters.
Read similar cases in our database that claims that the UK was ready to create a casus belli in the Black Sea; or that UK Destroyer's passage near Crimea violated international law; or that UK warship presence in the Black Sea was a NATO provocation; or even that the UK wanted Russia to shoot at the HMS Defender.