DISINFO: The West forcibly drags Russia into war with Ukraine
SUMMARY
The West forcibly drags Russia into war with Ukraine.
RESPONSE
The claim that the West is dragging Russia into a war with Ukraine is recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation, not backed up with evidence.
It also tries to deflect attention away from Russia's involvement in the Donbas war by speaking about the alleged involvement of the West and a possible military escalation at its insistence.
The West did not drag Russia into occupying the internationally recognised part of Ukraine nor is it forcing an escalation of the conflict now. In fact, the systematic issuing of Russian passports to citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk (to more than 400.000 persons by April 2021) is now also used as a pretext to claim the right to influence and perhaps intervene militarily.
Russia is also reported to be using the occupied territories as a testing ground for new weapons. Despite all this Russia officially denies its military presence in Donbas and accuses the West of forcibly dragging it into war with Ukraine.
It is well documented that after former Ukrainian president Victor Yanukovych left Kyiv for Kharkiv in February 2014, armed men began occupying key facilities and checkpoints on the Crimean peninsula. By early March, Russian troops had secured the entire peninsula. Later in 2015, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, admitted that Russian soldiers were deployed in Crimea. After an illegal referendum, Crimea was annexed to Russia in March 2014.
No international body recognises the results of the referendum. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution stating that the referendum in Crimea was invalid.
See more disinformation regarding Crimea such as 96% of Crimean people wanted to rejoin Russia, Crimea was reunited with homeland Russia and the exercises "Defender Europe 2021' are Nato's preparation for the war with Russia.