DISINFO: Ukrainians die forced to defend Nazi clique in a mythological country
SUMMARY
Volodymyr Zelensky's journey through several European countries is a a flying circus, at a time when hundreds of Ukrainians are dying daily and are brought in by force to protect the interests of Nazi clique in power. [...] all this in the name of the victory of a mythological country.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Nazi clique in Kyiv, mocking president Zelenskyy previous career as an actor, and doubting Ukraine very existence. This aims at deterring Western countries from supporting Ukraine during the unprovoked illegal military invasion.
Since 2014 pro-Kremlin media outlets have often claimed that Ukraine either did not exist as an independent state or was going to disintegrate very soon.
In reality, present-day Ukraine has been on the world map since 1991 when the Soviet Union disintegrated.
Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine has a functioning government and economy, it is a member of many international organisations (e.g. United Nations, Council of Europe), and a party to international agreements. Ukraine has bilateral diplomatic relations with the majority of countries.
Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity have been violated by continuous acts of aggression by Russian armed forces since 2014 culminating in a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine on 24th February 2022.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. The accusation of Nazism and building a link to Nazi Germany is one of the favourite techniques of pro-Kremlin outlets. Read our past analysis Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.
Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".
You can read similar cases here: Ukrainians remove swastika tattoos to travel to Europe, West wants a final solution to solve the Russian question, The Nazi Kyiv regime creates “Hitler-Jugend” and conscripts women en masse, Zelensky uses the same Nazi symbols as Hitler.