DISINFO: US prevents Ukraine from making territorial concessions
SUMMARY
Ukraine is not willing to make territorial concessions to Russia, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN. Experts believe that US doesn’t authorises Kyiv to negotiate with Russia. The Ukrainian president act on orders from his Western sponsors. The White House doesn’t want a peace agreement because of its plans to destabilise Russia.
RESPONSE
This claim, first made by the Spanish service of Sputnik and reproduced by the Argentinian website El Extremo Sur, is a mix of several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Ukraine’s alleged lack of sovereignty and Western plans for destabilising Russia. By falsely affirming that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows US orders, these narratives attempt to denigrate Ukraine by portraying it as a non-independent Western puppet, one of the many long-term pro-Kremlin disinformation messages on Ukraine. The number and intensity of these messages has increased after Russia’s unjustified aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
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.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database, such as claims that decisions on Ukraine are not made by Zelenskyy but by high ranking officials in the US, that a peaceful settlement in Ukraine is off the table for Western countries, that Zelenskyy is only a marketing operation, a Jewish face for a Nazi regime, or that Ukraine cannot be called a state, so Russia fights against the West.