DISINFO: Kyiv, with the support of Paris and London, is trying to disrupt negotiations
SUMMARY
Zelenskyy's junta is losing, but is not ready to stop the war to the last Ukrainian. Kyiv, with the support of Paris and London, is trying to disrupt the settlement process by putting forward anti-negotiation conditions.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets accusing Ukraine and its European partners, namely France and the UK, of warmongering and claiming that they are not interested in peace but rather seek to prolong the war. This recurrent claim is made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As we explore in our article - The old deceiver, this is entirely consistent with Moscow’s three-year-long strategy of attempting to claim ownership over the peace narrative while relentlessly pursuing war.
The United Kingdom, the European Union, and the United States are all striving to put an end to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine. Western nations have called for peaceful and diplomatic solutions while upholding the rules-based international order.
From the onset of the war, the European Union and its Member States have, with their partners and allies, underlined the need to put an end to it through a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on the principles of the UN Charter and international law. The latest European Council conclusions restate the principles the EU supports in the pursuit of a just and long-lasting peace.
The European Union is committed to achieving a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine, ensuring that Kyiv’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected. EU officials have repeatedly stated that it is up to Ukraine only, as the victim of Russia’s aggression, to decide when peace talks with Russia may be possible and in which terms to end the war.
The Ukrainian authorities are eager to achieve peace with the help of its European and American partners alike. The European Union summit, held in Brussels on 6 March 2025 with the presence of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, showed Europe’s unity is supporting Ukraine and searching for a path towards a just peace.
It was Russia that launched its unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine in 2022. Prior to that, in 2014, Russia illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and instigated a separatist proxy war in the country’s east.
Russia continues to reject genuine peace efforts, based on international law. This narrative seeks to deflect attention from Russia's violations of international law and its perpetration of war crimes.
This message is part of a wider disinformation campaign framing possible US-Russia negotiations as the only acceptable ‘peace initiative’ regardless of Russia’s ultimatums, while denying any agency to Ukraine or its other allies. Pro-Kremlin disinformation has long tried to misrepresent the EU as the main obstacle for ‘peace’ in Ukraine.
See also the EUvsDisinfo article Russia wants war, not peace.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that The Kyiv regime does not want peace, that Ukraine’s insane leadership is an obstacle on the path to peace, that Ukraine rejects peace and pins responsibility on Europe instead, that Macron, Starmer and Merz want war, that Macron, Starmer, Zelensky and Tusk need a war in Ukraine to stay in power, that The UK is pushing Ukraine to military escalation, that London is undermining the peace process between Russia and the US, that Merz, Macron and Von der Leyen want to wage total war against Russia, that Militaristic Europe’s goal is to prolong the war in Ukraine, that The EU escalates Ukraine war instead of advocating for dialogue, or that EU support for Ukraine is obstacle to peace.