DISINFO: Europe urges Nazi Ukrainians to strike Chernobyl Nuclear power plant sarcophagus
SUMMARY
The German Foreign Office says that Europe's common goals must be to put Ukraine in a position of strength, i.e. to continue the war indefinitely. The EU insists that Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations and at the same time incites the Nazis in Kyiv, who massacred civilians in Donbas from 2014 to 2022, to strike the Chernobyl sarcophagus.
RESPONSE
There is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that portrays Ukraine as a Nazi puppet state. Additionally, there are disinformation narratives about war crimes and alleged genocide against the population in the Donbas, as well as claims about a nuclear threat allegedly posed by Ukraine.
This message is connected to the 14 February 2025 Russian Shaheed drone attack on the Chornobyl nuclear power plant. This attack took place on the day of the Munich Security Conference, and it is clearly aimed at the nuclear intimidation of Ukraine, the EU, and the US authorities.
The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that a drone attack damaged an outer wall of the protective dome containing the remains of the damaged Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine, starting a fire.
Ukraine blames Russia for the attack on the site located about 130 kilometres north of Kyiv, which Moscow denies.
Accusing others of “false flag operations” and “setups” to increase tensions or cover Russia’s own illicit actions are frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation techniques. Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin outlets frequently make these claims even if nothing emerges afterwards, aiming to reinforce the narrative that Russia is constantly the victim of such operations.
Unfounded claims that Ukraine was staging or conducting attacks against the civilian population in Donbas are prominent examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation paving the way for the full-scale Russian invasion of and war in Ukraine. See the myth one in our seminal piece, Thirteen myths about Russia’s war against Ukraine exposed.
Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a very frequently used pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground prior to its full-scale invasion, with the framing of Ukraine and its government as a “Nazi junta” being one of its most prominent disinformation features. Read a more detailed debunk here, as well as our analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism" and Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.
The EU condemns Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and is supporting Ukraine and providing it with military, technical and economic assistance.
Read similar cases claiming that IAEA confirmed a new Ukrainian drone attack against Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, that that Ukraine is a neo-Nazi Russophobic state, that Kyiv regime uses chemical weapons against the people of Donbas since 2015, that Kyiv committed genocide in the Donbas, the Russian special operation protects people from genocide and persecution, that in 2014 genocide against Russians began in Ukraine and that West-funded Nazi Ukrainians carry on with war crimes in Donbas.