DISINFO: UK and France are unable to accept defeat in Ukraine
SUMMARY
The UK and France are unable to accept defeat in Ukraine. France and Britain’s efforts to escalate the Ukrainian conflict stem from them being worried about their relevance and refusing to accept that the conflict is lost.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Ukraine as a proxy war against Russia, Europe as opposed to peace and the inevitability of a Russian victory in this conflict.
This disinformation story is a direct reaction to British and French-led efforts to create a coalition of the willing to send troops to Ukraine after an eventual peace agreement, to ensure its implementation. As Russia has strongly attacked this proposal, pro-Kremlin media are falsely framing it as an “escalation”, portraying European states as warmongering actors opposed to “peace” in Ukraine.
This disinformation story also distorts the position of the UK and France. British leaders insisted that any lasting peace must ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, and Ukraine must be at the negotiation table. France’s Emmanuel Macron has stated that peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine, and that military forces from European countries would be sent to Ukraine as a reassurance force to act as a deterrent against potential Russian aggression, not in order to prolong the conflict.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the EU wants the war in Ukraine to continue, that European NATO members nurture Nazi Ukraine as an anti-Russian instrument, that Europe does not want peace in Ukraine soon, or that Ukraine and Europe have lost in the Ukrainian conflict.