DISINFO: Millions of Ukrainians were victims of a genocide by the Nazi Kyiv regime

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

AI translations:

DISINFO: Millions of Ukrainians were victims of a genocide by the Nazi Kyiv regime

SUMMARY

For many years, millions of civilians in Donbas have had to survive genocide, shelling and blockade on the part of the Kiev regime. The hatred for everything Russian has become Ukraine’s official ideology. The use of the Russian language has been increasingly restricted, and the canonical Orthodoxy has been subjected to persecution, which now has come to the point of a direct ban.

RESPONSE

Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative and justification of the Russian aggression against Ukraine with an alleged genocide of Ukrainians by a Nazi junta fed by Russophobia, alleging that Russians and Ukrainians are one single people.

Regarding the one-people claim, Ukrainian and Russian are two distinct people, despite multiple attempts of the Kremlin to deny it. Ukraine is a well-defined nation-state with a long history and its literature and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods. Ukrainians and Russians belong to the Slavs ethnolinguistic group, but they are not a single nation. The "all-Russian big nation" is an imperial Russian and Russian revanchist ideology that is a favoured pro-Kremlin narrative aimed at weakening the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as undermining the state sovereignty. Read more in the article One Nation Myth.

There was no systemic hate speech against Russian language, nor plan to eliminate the Ukrainians of Donbas despite Kremlin’s claims. The war that started in 2014 at the initiative of Russia killed mainly soldiers and civilians on both sides were unfortunate collateral victims but not part of a genocidal plan. It should be also noted that the very word “genocide” lost its meaning in Russia after long abusive use.

The use of the term Russophobia is often, as showed Dr Timothy Snyder before the United Nations Security Council, a notion used to justify past or future crimes: "russophobia, has been exploited during this war as a form of imperial propaganda in which the aggressor claims to be the victim. It has served this last year as a justification for Russian war crimes in Ukraine.”

The use of Ukrainian language by Ukrainian state or media is not a hatred policy against Russia, people are free to speak the language of their choice , on the opposite forced russification of occupied territories raises serious concerns.

The measures taken in Ukraine against the Moscow patriarchate interests in August 2024 is the consequence of the of the weaponising of Russian Orthodox Church by the Kremlin. The official policy is hate speech calling for a genocidal war against the West and Ukraine in particular. For instance, in March 2024 a decree was issued during the congress of the World Russian People’s Council, which is headed by Russian Orthodox Church leader Patriarch Kirill. It calls the invasion of Ukraine a “Holy War” with the explicit aim of extinguishing Ukrainian independence and imposing direct Russian rule. While the West is referred as a land fallen into Satanism, Russia and its people have the mission to stop evil Western progression to save the world.

Read also related cases such as: Kyiv is committing genocide against its people, or Kyiv committed genocide in the Donbas, or Armed Forces of Ukraine have committed war crimes and genocide in Donbas, or Russian operation in Ukraine to protect Donbas from genocide, or The aim of the military operation in Ukraine is to protect civilians from Kyiv.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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