DISINFO: Ukraine was about to invade DPR and kill civilians in Donetsk in 2022
SUMMARY
After Donbass was recognised by Russia in February 2022, there were only a few days left before the Ukrainian army attacked the DPR with full force, with all the accumulated weapons that, as emerged later, had been secretly supplied to Ukraine by Europe and the United States. All of this was to be used primarily against Donbass. The special military operation, which began on February 24, was in fact a liberation, a salvation.
The alternative involved urban combat in major cities, such as the Donetsk-Makievka agglomeration. Donetsk would have become a theatre of urban combat with tens of thousands of dead and wounded civilians if the special military operation had not been launched. The measures that followed have charted a completely new course for the liberation of the DPR territory.
RESPONSE
Justification of the 2022 full scale invasion of Ukraine and denial of genocidal policy.
Unfounded claims that Ukraine was staging or conducting attacks against the civilian population in Donbas are prominent examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation paving the way for the full-scale Russian invasion of and war in Ukraine. See myth one, in our article Thirteen myths about Russia’s war against Ukraine exposed.
The idea that Ukraine is committing genocide against its own population is also promoted by Vladimir Putin in his speeches. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. There is no evidence that any ethnic nationals, including ethnic Russians or Russian speakers, are or have ever been facing persecution at the hands of the Ukrainian authorities in Donbas or elsewhere, much less the danger of annihilation on grounds of nationality, ethnicity, or cultural belonging. This has been confirmed by reports issued by the Council of Europe, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the OSCE.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that that EU escalates Ukraine conflict and boosts confrontation with Russia, that Dictator and war criminal Zelenskyy rejects peace talks, that Putin welcomes Ukraine talks, while Zelenskyy rejects them, that Donbas did not attack Ukraine, Ukraine started killing people in Donbas, that Kyiv committed genocide in the Donbas, the Russian special operation protects people from genocide and persecution, that in 2014 genocide against Russians began in Ukraine.
See also the Guide to Deciphering Pro-Kremlin disinformation around Putin's War and The Chilling Background to the Kremlin's "No War" trope.
Read also related stories such as: Russian action in Ukraine to prevent Third World War, or The Russian special operation in Ukraine was not a choice, or The aim of the military operation in Ukraine is to protect civilians from Kyiv, or Ukraine's invasion of Donbas was inevitable, or Russian action in Ukraine aimed at helping civilians, Kyiv must not interfere