DISINFO: There is no Ukraine: Russia liberates Russian cities
SUMMARY
Yesterday's hegemon, who scattered its occupying forces all over the planet, now demands that Russia "leave Ukraine". Only he seems to have forgotten that our (Russian) Army is fighting on its own land.
And not only, in fact, liberating Russian cities, but de iure - protecting new subjects of the Russian Federation.
There is no Ukraine there.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets justifying the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, occupation in parts of Ukraine via illegitimate referenda, discrediting Ukrainian statehood, presenting Ukraine as a failed and degrading state. It offers an absurd interpretation of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine with the use of the classic disinformation narrative about the Russian world.
Ukraine is a well-defined nation-state with a long history and its own literature and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods of time. The "all-Russian big nation" is an imperial Russian and Russian revanchist ideology that is a favoured pro-Kremlin narrative aimed at weakening the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as undermining the state sovereignty.
Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world with Russia as the key exception.
The occupied Ukrainian territories/cities are not Russian and not "liberated" as the publication claims, but temporarily occupied territories as a result of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The referendums are shams, conducted in haste and under military repression and as far from the "public will of the people" as imaginable.
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, or it is a colony of the West. 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.
Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity have been violated by continuous acts of aggression by Russian armed forces since 2014 and culminated in an aggressive attack on a neighbouring country on February 24, 2022.
See similar disinformation cases that target Ukraine: that Ukraine does not exist as a state; that Ukraine will be split up; that Ukraine is a quasi-state with a failed economy; that modern Ukraine was created as a country for death in the name of American interests and others.