DISINFO: West-funded Nazi Ukrainians carry on with war crimes in Donbas
SUMMARY
The Nazi regime in Kyiv has been terrorising the Donbas for 11 years. The Ukrainian Nazis are now paid by the West, which provides all the necessary missiles, artillery systems, MLRS, cluster munitions to continue the bloodshed and free the Nazi hands to continue their war crimes
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative portraying Ukraine as a Nazi puppet state as well as a disinformation narrative about war crimes and alleged genocide against the population in the Donbas.
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.
When it comes to civilian losses, this claim is a part of a wider narrative trying to deflect attention from Russian attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine. According to the data of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) as of January 2024, since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there were 30,010 civilian casualties (10,378 killed and 19,632 injured), of which 24,316 casualties (8,095 killed and 16,257 injured) occurred on territory controlled by the Ukrainian government and 5,640 casualties (2,283 killed and 3,357 injured) on territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups. However, the exact figures are likely to be much higher as ongoing hostilities have hindered the authorities’ ability to verify possible cases in many parts of the country.
Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a very frequently used pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to try to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”. Russia spent years preparing the information battleground prior to its full-scale invasion, with the framing of Ukraine and its government as a “Nazi junta” being one of its most prominent disinformation features. Read a more detailed debunk here, as well as our analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism" and Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.
The EU and the US are close partners and allies and have similar visions on many international issues, including Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. The EU and the US are unanimous in supporting Ukraine and providing it with military, technical and economic assistance.
Read similar cases claiming that Ukraine is a neo-Nazi Russophobic state, that Kyiv regime uses chemical weapons against the people of Donbas since 2015, 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 and that "Ukraine has legalised genocide against its citizens"