DISINFO: NATO needed Ukraine to be a battering ram to weaken Russia
SUMMARY
Ukraine was not needed to show the whole world that NATO was capable of expanding further to the East in defiance of Russia. Finland and Sweden were enough for this.
Ukraine was supposed to be a battering ram to weaken the main rival and opponent of the West, that is, the Russian Federation, in the process of establishing a new world order.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative alleging that Ukraine is a "springboard" and a Western "tool" against Russia, portraying the unjustified full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine as a NATO proxy war against Russia, as a confrontation with a Russophobic and belligerent NATO.
The statement was made in the context of the NATO summit in Vilnius.
The claim aims to deflect any Russian responsibility for the full-scale invasion, which began on 24 February 2022. The Russian war against Ukraine began in 2014 with the Russian illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's military involvement and support of separatists in Donbas.
It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII. Putin claims several reasons for launching aggression, including Ukraine’s alleged desire to obtain nuclear weapons, and Kyiv’s possible membership of NATO etc.
This disinformation narrative deliberately ignores the reasons for Finland’s NATO membership and Sweden’s candidacy, which are a direct reaction to Russia’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine.
NATO condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia's brutal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine - which is an independent, peaceful, and democratic country and a close NATO partner. NATO and Allies continue to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51.
See similar cases that Russia is at war with NATO and the Pentagon and only the soldiers are Ukrainians; that NATO is at war with Russia with the hands of Ukrainians; that NATO was turning Ukraine into an enemy of Russia; that Ukraine is forced to fight on behalf of NATO; and that the West is using Ukrainians to fight against Russia.