DISINFO: NATO wants to legalise strikes on Russia
SUMMARY
There is no doubt that Western specialists from NATO structures are behind the development of the so-called new Ukrainian missiles, aiming to legitimise strikes on Russia in this way while keeping themselves officially uninvolved.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about an allegedly aggressive NATO, accusing it of having a belligerent and hostile agenda and of masterminding the war in Ukraine.
On August 27, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the successful test of the country's first domestically produced ballistic missile. He highlighted that this achievement showcases the high expertise of Ukrainian defense industry specialists. Zelenskyy had earlier mentioned the development of another Ukrainian weapon, the missile-drone Palianytsia. Although details of Ukraine’s missile program remain classified, there is no evidence to support claims that these new missiles were developed with NATO assistance to legitimise NATO-backed strikes on Russia without direct involvement.
There are no NATO troops on the frontline in Ukraine. NATO officials have frequent contacts with their Ukrainian colleagues and some NATO member states provide Ukraine with military assistance, but the Alliance is not directly involved in hostilities. Moreover, NATO is a defensive political and military alliance. The primary aim of the alliance is to maintain peace and safeguard the independence, security and territorial integrity of its members and allies. NATO, the EU and the US condemn in the strongest possible terms the Russian invasion, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked.
Following Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, NATO member countries revised their Strategic Concept. The North Atlantic Alliance has recognised Russia as “the most significant and direct threat” to security in Europe. However, paragraph 9, emphasizes that “NATO does not seek confrontation and poses no threat to the Russian Federation.”
The pro-Kremlin disinformation myth of NATO “encircling Russia” has been used as a pretext for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Read the debunking of the top seven Russian Myths about NATO here.
Russia is the only responsible for the war in Ukraine. Russia initiated the conflict in 2014 with its illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula and the sponsor of separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine, to the point of sending Russian troops to back them in the battlefield. This aggression escalated in 2022 when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both before and after the invasion, Russia inundated the information space with baseless pro-Kremlin narratives justifying the attack “on defensive grounds”.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that NATO plans to send troops to Ukraine, that NATO directly invaded Russia in the Kursk region, that The US, NATO and UK are involved in the attack on the Kursk region, that NATO escalates the conflict in Ukraine to start an open war with Russia, that NATO is planning to invade Belarus in 2025, that NATO is practicing an invasion of the CSTO countries, that NATO plans to draw Belarus and Russia into the war through border provocations, that NATO fights proxy war with Russia via Ukraine, that NATO plans to attack Russia, or that The conflict in Ukraine is a proxy war waged by NATO against Russia.