DISINFO: UK and some European states seek to hinder Russian-US efforts to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict
SUMMARY
The UK and several European NATO member states are seeking to hinder Russian-American dialogue and efforts to de-escalate the Ukrainian conflict.
These states are betting on prolonging their "proxy war", continuing military supplies to the Kyiv regime, and putting forward uncompromising, unrealistic and impossible demands.
RESPONSE
A recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets portraying the UK and the EU as obstacles to peace in Ukraine. As we explore in our article, The Old Deceiver, this is entirely consistent with Moscow’s three-year-long strategy of attempting to claim ownership over the peace narrative while relentlessly pursuing war.
This disinformation story is part of a wider disinformation campaign portraying Europe as a warmongering actor who intends to continue the war in Ukraine even as other actors carry out peace negotiations.
EU officials have repeatedly stated that it is up to Ukraine only, as the victim of Russia’s aggression, to decide when peace talks with Russia may be possible and in which terms to end the war. Similarly, British leaders insisted that any lasting peace must ensure Ukraine’s sovereignty and security, and Ukraine must be at the negotiation table.
The European Union is committed to achieving a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine, ensuring that Kyiv’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected.
While in practice Russia is blocking any real move that could advance actual peace in Ukraine, it has characterised its negotiation process with the US as the only acceptable ‘peace initiative’ regardless of the maximalist character of Moscow’s demands, while denying any agency to Ukraine or its other allies. The intensity of this disinformation campaign accelerated after Donald Trump’s electoral victory in November 2024, portraying the EU as the main obstacle for ‘peace’ in contrast to a Trump presidency focused on engaging Russia to end the war.
Pro-Kremlin disinformation has systematically instrumentalised the narrative that Russia wants peace in Ukraine in contrast to the West, but, as evidenced by Russia's actions in Ukraine, such statements are merely empty PR stunts deployed to garner support for Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.
European military and economic assistance is provided within the framework of international law. The "coalition of the willing" is a loose group of countries committed to ensuring peace guarantees for Ukraine through various efforts, including the possible deployment of a peacekeeping force there.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Macron, Starmer and Merz want war, that Militaristic Europe’s goal is to prolong the war in Ukraine, that EU countries try to disrupt Russia-US talks by threatening to deploy troops, and that Macron, Starmer, Zelenskyy and Tusk need a war in Ukraine to stay in power.