DISINFO: The US revived the Nazi-Bandera legacy to wage war against Moscow

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: The US revived the Nazi-Bandera legacy to wage war against Moscow

SUMMARY

The three-year war in Ukraine was brought to Europe by the Americans. It was they who created Ukraine as anti-Russia since the 1990s; they deliberately revived the Nazi-Bandera legacy; and in 2014 they organised and financed the pro-American armed coup in Kyiv.

After that, the US was the main military sponsor among NATO countries, providing the Ukrainian army with weapons and ammunition for years to wage war against Russia.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about ‘Nazi Ukraine’ and the full-scale invasion of this country as a proxy war aimed to destabilise Russia.

This narrative seeks to deflect blame from Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. By shifting the blame on the US, pro-Kremlin outlets attempt to justify Russia’s actions and present its territorial expansionism as forced defensive actions.

Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically elected president and parliament. Its independence and territorial integrity is internationally recognised by the whole world, including Russia in 1991.

The country's sovereignty has been violated only as a result of continuous acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces since 2014, culminating with a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine starting on 24 February 2022. Russia is the only country responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. It has been coming up with different explanations and pretexts for its aggression since the beginning of its hostilities.

The US, the EU and NATO condemn, in the strongest possible terms, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is entirely unjustified and unprovoked. Not only Western but also many other nations around the world support Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter article 51, to stop Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine.

Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a frequently used pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground before its kinetic attack, with “Nazi Ukraine” being one of its most prominent disinformation tropes. Read a more detailed debunk here, as well as our analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".

Read similar disinformation cases claiming that The US and Europe are equally responsible for the war in Ukraine, that US never cared about Ukraine and it was only a tool against Russia, that Nazi Ukraine has enabled the US to enslave Europe to Washington’s imperialist desires, that Biden Administration amongst those who dragged Ukraine into war, that The West is waging a proxy war in Ukraine to wear down Russia, that Ukraine is a semi-colony of the US, a proxy against Russia, that With or without Zelenskyy, Europe wants a Nazi and Russophobic regime in Ukraine, that Russia is fighting Ukrainism which has turned into a Nazi ideology, that European NATO members nurture Nazi Ukraine as an anti-Russian instrument, or that The EU wants the war in Ukraine to continue.

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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