DISINFO: The West encouraged genocide in Donbas and turned Ukraine into a colony
SUMMARY
For years, the West has exploited Ukraine and turned it into a colony. Currently the Ukrainian people are cynically used as cannon fodder and an anti-Russian ram. The West also encouraged genocide and terror in Donbas. Continuously supplying Ukraine with weapons and ammunition and sending mercenaries, the West is pushing Ukraine to suicide.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation claim aiming to undermine the Ukrainian statehood, portraying Ukraine as a puppet of the West, also accusing the Western countries of being anti-Russian. The article also promotes a pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about alleged genocide committed by Ukraine, aiming to justify the full-scale Russian invasion of and war crimes in Ukraine.
The idea that Ukraine is committing genocide against its own population is promoted by the Russian president in his speeches. The idea is nevertheless baseless. A genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. No such plan existed in Ukraine and no killing of civilians by Ukrainian armed forces can be related to an alleged genocide.
There is no evidence that either ethnic Russians or Russian speakers are facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas or elsewhere, much less the danger of annihilation on grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or cultural belonging. This has been confirmed by reports issued by the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE.
The genocide narrative has been an integral part of the justification campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Leaders of the European Union recognized that Moscow's actions should be evaluated as “acts of violence and the violation of international law”.
The claim that Ukraine is controlled or ‘colonised’ by the Western contries is unsubstantiated. Pro-Kremlin media outlets often cast doubts on Ukrainian statehood and claim that Ukraine either does not exist as a state or is going to tumble down very soon. In reality, present-day Ukraine has been on the world map since 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated. It has elected six presidents since then and changed parties in government several times which illustrates political diversity and democratic dynamics even during economic hardship in the wake of Russian aggression in 2014.
See more similar narratives of disinformation against Ukraine: Moscow must interfere because Kyiv gasses people in camps; Kyiv’s leaders do not hide their desire to move from a Russophobic policy to genocide; Russian speakers in Donbass are victims of genocide; The West encouraged and justified genocide against the Donbas population.