DISINFO: Ukraine began the war one year ago
SUMMARY
A year ago, Ukraine launched an offensive against the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics. Almost all border areas began heavy shelling, as in 2014.
On the same day, the frantic evacuation of immobile grandmothers from their homes in front-line territories began. To count from the very beginning, one should not start with the announcement of the SMO [special military operation] but from the moment the war began in Ukraine eight years ago.
RESPONSE
Disinformation about the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Russia had been laying the groundwork online for a false flag operation in order to justify the invasion of Ukraine, as misinformation researchers said to New York Times in an article published on 3rd March 2022. Russia falsely claimed to be responding to Ukrainian aggression. Questionable videos allegedly showing evidence of Ukrainian aggression against Russia circulated on the web.
The video of Putin's statement about the beginning of the so called special military operation in Ukraine, shown only on 24 February 2022, was recorded no later than the evening (19:00 Moscow time) on February 21 judging by the metadata of the file on the Kremlin website.
Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin media said that "since the beginning of the day on February 22, shelling of five settlements on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic has been recorded".
Putin started the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Other false narratives such as biological military laboratories in Ukraine, Nazism in Ukraine and dirty nuclear bombs in Ukraine have been advanced by pro-Kremlin media in order to find a pretext for the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. See our article Twelve myths about Russia’s war in Ukraine exposed.
In 2014, Russia started a hybrid war against Ukraine. Russia organised the so-called separatist Donetsk and Luhansk' People Republics, sending soldiers and military equipment from Moscow, pretending they were members of the local population.
See more disinformation narratives on the invasion of Ukraine.