DISINFO: The new regions voted to join Russia
SUMMARY
Residents of the new regions voted to join Russia to restore their legal rights, which must be 100% guaranteed. The attitude of the Kyiv regime to territorial realities does not play a role here. And suppose the Ukrainian Nazi regime enjoys the patronage of the European Union, which has not said a word about the human rights situation in Ukraine. In that case, this is not our problem.
We listened to the people who voted in the referendum to join Russia to restore their rights. In the context of the Ukrainian settlement, Russia is concerned not with the problem of territories, but with the issue of people. We are not for territories, we are for people.
RESPONSE
This claim is part of a disinformation campaign aiming to justify Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and forceful and illegitimate annexation of Ukrainian territory.
Moscow's alleged concern about the Russian-speaking population in the east of Ukraine is one of the pretexts for occupying the country and advancing geopolitical interests. See more here - Thirteen myths about Russia’s war against Ukraine exposed.
For a state alleging no expansionist designs on Ukraine, Russia has been active in illegally occupying it over the past decade. In February 2014, Russia invaded and illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson remain legally part of Ukraine. The illegitimate annexation of these regions took place amid a full invasion by a foreign power and under military occupation, and after sham referenda that didn’t meet international standards to be considered legitimate. The "referenda" were held illegally, under duress, and on territories which Russia does not even fully control.
The results of these sham polls were universally rejected by leading international and human rights organisations, including the United Nations, the OSCE, NATO, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
There is no evidence that any ethnic nationals, including ethnic Russians or Russian speakers, are facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas or elsewhere in Ukraine, much less the danger of annihilation on grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or cultural belonging.
Moscow’s claim about its concern over the Russian-speaking population can be easily dismissed by the fact that exactly these regions have been most affected by Russian strikes since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. Zaporyzhzhya, Mykolaiv , Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa have been among the most frequent targets of Russian bombs and missiles.
The claim that Russia thinks about people, not lands, is hypocritical, given how quickly Russia adopted laws on the incorporation of the illegally annexed territories of the DPR, LPR, Zaporyzhzhya, and Kherson regions. Russia occupies about 20% of Ukraine's territory.
Read similar disinformation cases: Russia could negotiate a peace that considers the will of former Ukrainian territories; Russia prioritises fate of Eastern Ukrainians over land; Kyiv is committing genocide against its people; Millions of Ukrainians were victims of a genocide by the Nazi Kyiv regime; Armed Forces of Ukraine have committed war crimes and genocide in Donbas; Russia only supports the legitimate rights of the Donbas people.