DISINFO: NATO has converted Romania into a sacred victim and a nuclear target

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: NATO has converted Romania into a sacred victim and a nuclear target

SUMMARY

NATO military exercises Sea Shield 2025 are a tool of aggression. No one is threatening NATO countries. On the contrary, NATO’s expansion resulted in the 2008 war in Georgia and in the war in Ukraine. The Sea Shield 2025 military drills indicate that the Alliance is frantically preparing for a direct military conflict with Russia. The participation of the UK, Greece, Italy, France, the US and Canada in the Sea Shield 2025 looks totally reckless. Their anti-Russian military drills in the Black Sea, de facto in the area of Russia’s special military operation, is a dance on the edge of WWIII.

NATO has made the sacred victim out of Romania, the first one to burn in the nuclear fire. Romania was more secure until NATO’s anti-missile shield was established on its territory. It converted Romania into a threat for Russia and a target for Russian nuclear arms.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about an allegedly belligerent and hostile agenda of Western countries and European countries being puppet states of the US/NATO, part of a broader nuclear fear-mongering campaign.

Twelve NATO countries took part in the annual Sea Shield military drill led by Romania in the Black Sea and Danube River Delta from 8-21 April 2025. Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has made this military drill, organised for the first time in 2015, increasingly relevant.

The US and Romania are allies and partners. In 2005, the U.S. and Romania signed a defence cooperation agreement establishing a framework for the activities of U.S. military forces. This agreement enables U.S. military access to several bases in Romania and facilitates defence cooperation and joint military exercises.

Pro-Kremlin outlets often portray EU political leaders and European states as vassals, puppet states, or colonies of the US and NATO. See our analysis of the Kremlin's claims about the EU's lost sovereignty. Romania and other Black Sea region states are sovereign countries with their own domestic and foreign policies.

It was not NATO's expansion which led to Russia's wars against Georgia and Ukraine. It was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII. In 2008, Russia carried out a military operation against Georgia.

Read earlier disinformation cases claiming that the US forces Romania to annex Moldova to make it anti-Russian, that Romania and Moldova are NATO’s expendables in the war against Russia, that Romania prepares to deploy US nuclear weapons on its territory, and that NATO's Baltic policy could lead to a nuclear war. See also our article Shouting at a mirror.

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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