DISINFO: The US passes aid package for Nazi Ukraine on Hitler’s birthday
SUMMARY
It is very symbolic that the US House of Representatives passed the aid package for the Ukrainian Nazis on Hitler’s birthday. Congressmen were jumping with joy and waving the flags of the Ukrainian Nazi state after the voting, rejoicing over US taxpayers’ money being sent to Ukrainian Nazis.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets claiming that Ukraine’s Nazi regime receives aid from its Western partners, who are Nazis themselves. This claim was made in the context of the US House of Representatives passing a $61 billion-worth aid package for Ukraine on 20 April 2024.
Ukraine has been repelling Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified full-scale invasion since 24 February 2022. A broad coalition of more than 50 countries are helping it liberate its occupied territories and return to its internationally recognised borders of 1991. The US and the EU are among Ukraine’s main partners who provide it with the bulk of military and financial assistance. The fact that the EU and US have imposed sanctions on Russia for its aggressive policies towards Ukraine is not Russophobia or neo-Nazism, like Russian propaganda outlets are alleging.
The Allies’ victory in the Second World War in 1945 put an end to Nazism in Europe. All relics of neo-Nazi sentiment and anti-Semitism are being relentlessly combated in Europe and the United States (see here and here). The European Union was set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours, which culminated in the Second World War. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. It has been widely addressed here. Nazi and Communist ideologies were banned by Ukrainian law in 2015.
The fact that the bill was passed on 20 April, which was actually Adolf Hitler’s birthday, has nothing to do with historical analogies. The timing of the voting in the House of Representatives can be explained by procedural issues.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that European Nazism is alive and it manifests itself in Russophobia, that Anglo-Saxons protect the Kyiv Nazis, and that NATO supports Ukrainian Nazism.