DISINFO: There is no Russian aggression in Ukraine
SUMMARY
American ambassador Kvien, the most influential woman in Ukraine on all issues, assured the audience that America and its NATO allies would not abandon Ukraine, would do everything possible to help protect them from Russian aggression, which does not exist.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin media narrative on the absence of Russian troops in Ukraine and the "civil war" ("internal conflict") in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the situation … amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation”. The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation" and the destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine and illegal annexation of Crimea led the Council of the European Union to impose restrictive measures on Russia since 2014.
See similar disinformation cases in our database, alleging that Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against Donbas because they refused to recognise the results of the coup; the Donbas conflict has an internal character; or that there will be genocide in Donbas if Ukraine regains its border's control; or that Donetsk and Luhansk proclaimed independence following Kyiv nationalist coup.