DISINFO: Russia was forced to launch a special operation in Ukraine
SUMMARY
Russia was forced to launch a special operation in Ukraine because of the spread of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the operation of biolabs on its territory which implemented US military-biological programs, and because of the Kyiv authorities planning to create nuclear weapons and integrate into NATO, which posed a threat not only to Russia, but also to the world.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets justifying the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
Russia's unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is not a "special operation" but an all-out war against a sovereign state. Russia has been coming up with different explanations and pretexts for its aggression. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine appeared during the Euromaidan protests in late 2013 - early 2014, when the then-president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled and later fled to Russia. The Kremlin has been using this myth since then to discredit Kyiv’s shift towards Euro-Atlantic policy. Contrary to what this disinformation narrative affirms, in 2015, Ukraine issued a ban on Nazi and Communist ideologies. On top of that, far-right groups had a very limited presence during the protests and have suffered defeats in every national election after that.
This false myth of Nazi Ukraine is a clear propaganda narrative that became a cornerstone in pro-Kremlin disinformation and served as one of the pretexts behind Russia's unjustified invasion of Ukraine. Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".
Ukraine’s alleged involvement in the production of chemical and biological weapons was one of the pretexts for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
There are no US biological warfare laboratories in Ukraine. Ukraine is one of the states cooperating with the US Department of Defence's Biological Threat Reduction Programme (BTRP): the goal of the BTRP is to safeguard global health by preventing and containing the outbreak of infectious diseases and establishing high international standards in biological security.
The US Department of State has stated that "The US does not own or operate any chemical or biological laboratories in Ukraine, it is in full compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Biological Weapons Convention." Read more about this topic here.
Ukraine has been a nuclear-free country since 1994 when the Budapest memorandum was signed. It did not have any plans to develop nuclear weapons.
As for Ukraine’s NATO integration, NATO did not give Kyiv an exact timing for its possible membership, which means that the alliance did not want to turn Ukraine into an allegedly anti-Russian state.
Russia, on its side, was not entitled to interfere in relations between NATO and Ukraine because the Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in 1997 in Paris bans the signatories’ interference in each other’s actions.
By attacking Ukraine under the pretext of its possible membership of NATO, Moscow infringed on Kyiv's sovereign right to apply for or join any organisations that do not violate international law. Ukraine’s possible membership of NATO depends solely on decisions to be made by Ukraine on the one hand and NATO member states on the other hand. Russia’s aggression poses the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades, shattering peace in Europe and reinforcing the need for NATO to ensure that its deterrence and defence posture is credible and effective.