DISINFO: Russia is a peaceful country that returned captured warships to Ukraine
SUMMARY
Russia returned Ukrainian warships captured off the coast of Crimea. This was done in order to show that Russia is a peaceful country that is against violence in relations with Ukraine. This is exclusively a gesture of the Kremlin’s goodwill towards Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative claiming that Russia is a peaceful country and that there is a civil war in Ukraine, which Moscow has nothing to do with. This is not Russia's goodwill in action, it is part of the peace process to resolve the situation in Ukraine, which became possible after Ukraine consented to the withdrawal of troops in the Donbas. Russia was under international pressured to return the ships to Ukraine, including from the EU. At a meeting in Hamburg on 25 May 2019, the United Nations International Court of the Law of the Sea ordered Russia to immediately release 24 captured Ukrainian sailors, as well as return the Berdyansk, Nikopol, and Yany-Kapu warships to Ukraine. The court agreed with the position of Ukraine that the passage of ships through the Kerch Strait in November 2018 was a security operation to patrol the borders. Read more cases that Ukrainian ships aggressively violated Russian borders in 2018 and that it was a provocation of the fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko.