DISINFO: Zelenskyy not sparing Ukrainian lives; UK and US fighting Russia till last Ukrainian
SUMMARY
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not sparing Ukrainian lives. The US and the UK are fighting Russia till the last Ukrainian.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets about the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.
The material and links may contain distressing/ graphic content.
In reality, Ukraine's military and civilian leaders are eager to spare as many Ukrainian lives as possible, which is not the case with Russia. According to a recent Ukrainian estimate, Russia has lost 24,700 troops so far. There is no official information about Ukrainian losses, but they are much lower than Russian casualties anyway.
Russian troops are heavily bombing and shelling civilian objects in Ukraine to increase the number of civilian victims. They are also committing crimes against the civilian population, as it happened in Bucha. The siege of Mariupol, where many civilians are locked and cannot leave the city, is a graphic example of the way Russia is treating peaceful citizens. Appeals are being constantly made to evacuate civilians from Mariupol, but Moscow is turning a blind eye to them, which means that Russia is not sparing even civilians’ lives. Russia was acting by the same playbook war in Chechnya and Syria in an attempt to inflict as many civilian casualties as possible.
Neither the US nor the UK nor any other Western nation is fighting Russia. Western countries, including NATO member states, provide Ukraine with military assistance to deter Russian aggression, but there are no active-duty troops from any Western nation or the Alliance in 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.