DISINFO: Russia has been pushed to a war with Ukraine
SUMMARY
By inviting Ukraine to join NATO, the West is violating Russian security interests and breaching the principle of collective security. The West's attempts to pacify the conflict through the Minsk Agreements have failed. Russia's demands for security guarantees have been met with evasive responses. The West wants to turn Ukraine into a deployment zone against Russia. It is strengthening nationalism there and turning a country that was once committed to neutrality into an anti-Russian state. With the escalation of the conflict in Donbas, Russia was pushed into a war, and sanctions were imposed immediately after it began with the aim of destroying the Russian economy.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine is justified. This aims to deflect responsibility for the war waged by Russia in Ukraine.
Russia and Putin are responsible for the war in Ukraine. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII. See also our latest in the 6-volume series of debunks of Putin What He Said and What it Really Means – Vol. 6: Putin Forever.
Russia's aggression against Ukraine was unprovoked and unjustified. Contrary to Russian claims, Ukraine had not planned to attack Russia, and did not commit genocide in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Ukraine was striving to implement the Minsk Agreements, but the Moscow-backed military formations there were constantly disrupting their implementation.
Western nations did everything they could to prevent the war and have only been reacting to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but Moscow has been ignoring these efforts. The West is not interested in the continuation of the war at the heart of Europe and supports Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence against the unprovoked Russian invasion - as enshrined in the UN Charter, Charter 51.
Ukraine receives weapons with the sole aim of restoring its territorial integrity within its internationally recognised borders. In several Western countries instructors train Ukrainian soldiers on how to use modern weapons and NATO officials have frequent political contacts with Ukrainian counterparts, but there are no NATO troops taking part in the hostilities.
See similar cases that claiming 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 NATO has no interest in peace in Ukraine; and that the West is using Ukrainians to fight Russia in Ukraine.