DISINFO: The West meant to build a Nazi state in place of Ukraine
SUMMARY
The West has supported a coup d'état in Ukraine. They decided to replace the Kyivan Rus with Bandera and to build a real Nazi state on this foundation. Russia, a distinct civilisation with no nationalism, cannot lose the special military operation in Ukraine. Its goal is to protect people, who have been under genocide from the Kyiv regime for the past eight years.
RESPONSE
This is part of a disinformation campaign aiming to justify Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine which is labelled as "special military operation". It contains recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Euromaidan, war in Ukraine, and "genocide" in Ukraine. It is also consistent with disinformation narratives about ‘Nazi’ Ukraine and it being a non-sovereign, West-ruled country.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been actively used by pro-Kremlin outlets as one of the favorite tropes for years to denigrate Ukraine. The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine appeared during the Euromaidan protests in late 2013 - early 2014, falsely presented in pro-Kremlin sources as a coup, 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.
The war in Eastern Ukraine was a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, but not a punitive military operation of the Ukrainian authorities. Russia was supporting its proxies with weapons, its active-duty soldiers served there and its top military commanders visited the war zone to coordinate joint efforts with the separatists. Despite all this Russia officially denied its military presence in Donbas for the past 8 years.
There is no evidence that ethnic Russians were facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities, 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. For an overview of the Kremlin's deployment of the "genocide" narrative regarding Ukraine, see further debunking by EUvsDisinfo, Euromaidan Press, and POLYGRAPH.info.
Read our recent articles on 7 myths of pro-Kremlin disinformation about the Russian military buildup near Ukraine, and Kremlin fabricated pretexts for the further invasion of Ukraine. For the background, see vol. 1 and vol. 2 of the series "What he said and what it really means".
Technical remark: This disinformation was broadcast via Sputnik on 24 May 2022. Due to the EU decision to restrict the spread and dissemination of RT and Sputnik inside the EU, access to the link may not work inside the EU.