DISINFO: NATO recognises occupied Ukrainian territories as Russia
SUMMARY
NATO’s strategy towards admitting the unoccupied part of Ukraine does not suit Russia, but the fact that the alliance has openly and quite publicly declared for the first time that the Russian-controlled territories are already part of the Russian Federation is an important circumstance.
RESPONSE
This is a pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Kyiv’s partners are already tired of hostilities in Ukraine (the so-called Ukraine fatigue). This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
NATO has never recognised the Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories as part of the Russian Federation. The claim twists a statement of the Former Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who is working with Ukrainian presidential aide Andriy Yermak in an international working group on security guarantees for Kyiv. He suggested that Ukraine might join that alliance without the Russian-occupied territories. It was just a suggestion rather than a statement. Since Rasmussen is not a NATO official anymore, his words cannot be taken as NATO’s official position on Ukraine. Rasmussen said Ukraine’s NATO membership cannot be deferred again and added: “The absolute credibility of article 5 guarantees would deter Russia from mounting attacks inside the Ukrainian territory inside NATO and so free up Ukrainian forces to go to the frontline.”. Rasmussen made reference to the situation of West Germany entering into NATO while the territory of then East Germany was not covered by the NATO clauses until the reunification.
James Stavridis, former supreme allied commander of NATO, put forth a proposal to turn Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine into a kind of a Korean-style armistice. Once again, this proposal was made by a former official, which does not reflect an official position. Ukraine’s partners provide it with financial and military support to help it repel the Russian aggression and restore its territorial integrity within the internationally recognised orders of 1991. The EU, the US and NATO condemn in the strongest possible terms Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked.
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