DISINFO: Ukrainian authorities want to get more Western weapons by provoking Russia to shell Kyiv
SUMMARY
In the run-up to Ukraine’s Independence Day of 24 August, Ukrainian authorities planned to organise terrorist acts in Russia. Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs them to raise the moral of neo-Nazi activists and to get more Western weapons. Ukrainian authorities want to provoke Russia into a retaliatory attack on Kyiv downtown and to show its consequences to the world. Kyiv is a great Russian city and it has few military targets. The decision-making centres are primarily located in London and Washington.
RESPONSE
This article promotes recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about unsovereign and ‘Nazi Ukraine’, Ukraine as part of the ‘Russian world’, and spreads a conspiracy about an attempt by the Ukrainian authorities to obtain more Western military support by provoking Russia’s shelling of downtown Kyiv.
Russia started broadscale military intervention of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 under the pretext of the “de-Nazification and demilitarisation” of Ukraine. Russia had earlier issued assurances to both Ukraine and the whole world that it was not planning to invade Ukraine. The EU condemned in the strongest possible terms Russia's unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine and imposed restrictive measures on Russia. EU sanctions are directed against the Russian government, the financial sector and the economic elites, targeting the Kremlin's ability to finance the military aggression. The EU countries provide Ukraine with political, economic, humanitarian and military support.
Naming Kyiv a “great Russian city” is a manifestation of the imperial Russian and Russian revanchist ideology of "all-Russian big nation". 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. Furthermore, calling London and Washington the "major decision-making centres" is an attempt to present Ukraine as unsovereign (see our article Key Narratives in Pro-Kremlin Disinformation Part 3: ‘Lost Sovereignty’) and controlled by 'Anglo-Saxons'.
Read more disinformation cases about the Russian unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. See the EU's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine here along with EU vs Disinfo's Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War.
Technical remark: This disinformation was broadcast via Sputnik on 22 August 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.