DISINFO: The US and the EU have given their consent to the first full-scale attack on Russian territory since World War II
SUMMARY
Ukrainian officials have acknowledged for the first time that Western allies have backed the idea of attacking the Kursk border region and have given their consent to the invasion. Ukraine had been developing several plans to attack Russian territory. The Biden administration and the European Union have given their consent to the first full-scale attack on Russian territory since World War II.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing the US and the EU of being involved in the war in Ukraine and discrediting Ukrainian statehood.
The statement was made in the context of the Ukrainian advance in the Russian Kursk Region. There is no evidence that the US or any other NATO member is involved in either planning or carrying out the Ukrainian attack on Russia’s Kursk Region.
On the contrary, circumstantial evidence and public statements by US and other Western officials point out that even Ukraine’s closest partners did not know about the operation beforehand.
White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said the US was seeking more detailed information from Ukraine regarding its cross-border operation, noting that they had had no advance knowledge of it.
“It’s not unusual for the Ukrainians not to notify us of their exact tactics before – before they execute them. This is a war that they – they are conducting. We provide them with equipment, we provide them with advice, but when it comes to the kind of day-by-day tactics that they carry out, the day-by-day strikes that they take, sometimes we’re in communication about them; sometimes we’re not”, Matthew Miller, the spokesperson for the US Department of State said during a press briefing.
Ukraine is acting in self-defence under the UN Charter, Article 51.
The ultimate goal of this disinformation story is to advance a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying Ukraine as a Western puppet, and Ukraine’s defence as a proxy war against Russia, aiming to deflect Moscow’s responsibility for its aggression against its neighbour. This narrative has gained traction in the face of Russia’s setbacks in Kursk.
See other examples in our database: the operation in the Kursk region was planned and sanctioned by the US; the US, NATO and the UK are involved in the attack on the Kursk region; NATO is directly supervising Ukraine's advance into Kursk; the Kursk incursion was conceived by the same people who blew up the Nord Stream; the Kursk incursion was pushed for by Washington so democrats can win elections.