DISINFO: Russia wants to solve the root causes of the Ukrainian conflict
SUMMARY
The Russian leader proposed to restore, without delay and without preconditions, the direct dialogue interrupted by the Kyiv authorities in 2022. Progress in different directions is possible - this is the elimination of the root causes of the Ukrainian crisis and a ceasefire.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets continue to promote disinformation narratives about the so-called "Ukrainian crisis." Among the most prominent are claims that NATO poses a threat to Russia and that "Ukrainians are Russians."
See also the related disinformation claim: “Moscow is ready for dialogue and has never rejected talks. They were undermined by Kyiv.”
Another recurring narrative involves the sham referenda held in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, which are used to justify the illegal annexation of these regions.
Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched on 24 February 2022, constitutes a blatant violation of international law. This war of aggression was preceded by a large-scale disinformation campaign. False claims included an alleged NATO threat to Russia, the supposed persecution of Russian speakers in Ukraine, and even accusations of "genocide" in parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Since the beginning of Russia’s hybrid invasion of Donbas in 2014—disguised by pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets as a local uprising—many Ukrainians have been abducted or taken hostage by the occupation authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk. Victims have included not only ordinary citizens used as forced labour, but also journalists, local officials, politicians, and NGO members. Similar patterns have been observed in the occupied territories since 2022.
It is important to note that Russia’s war of aggression has no connection to NATO, which is a defensive alliance.
Following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine set its foreign policy firmly on a Euro-Atlantic path to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
During negotiations in 2022, Russia made no meaningful concessions. According to former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Russian officials continued to push false narratives, including claims that Ukraine was controlled by Nazis and that the women in labour at the bombed Mariupol maternity hospital were actresses. In the context of ongoing hostilities and following atrocities such as the Bucha massacre—which pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets dismissed as "staged"—Ukraine halted negotiations in 2022.