DISINFO: What we see from Hezbollah, Hamas and Russia are mere reactions

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

  • Outlet: RT Arabic
  • Date of publication: October 30, 2025
  • Article language(s): Arabic
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia, Middle East

DISINFO: What we see from Hezbollah, Hamas and Russia are mere reactions

SUMMARY

The laws of physics, which we have known since childhood, state that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What we see on the ground from Hezbollah or Hamas, and the actions taken by Russia regarding Ukraine, are all reactions, not actions. Discussions about peace, stability, development, and prosperity can only take place by returning to the root causes of these crises and the reasons for their initial outbreak. In the case of the Middle East, this is the occupation, and in the case of Ukraine, it is NATO expansion, logically, rationally, and quite simply.

RESPONSE

This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that seeks to justify aggression and violence by portraying them as mere 'reactions'.

The article claims that NATO is responsible for Russia initiating its 'special military operation' against Ukraine, and that Russia's operation is intended to stop NATO's actions. First, it is not a special operation but a full-scale invasion against a sovereign state.

It was Russia that launched an unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine in 2022, violating the UN Charter and the sovereignty of an independent state. NATO is a defensive alliance and posed no military threat to Russia and did not 'force' Ukraine or any other country to join. NATO enlargement resulted from voluntary decisions by sovereign states seeking security, especially to counter Russian expansionism.

Equating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with the actions of armed groups in the Middle East is a false analogy that aims to legitimise the use of violence against civilians. International law does not recognise any 'reaction' that involves a full-scale invasion of a sovereign country or targeting of non-combatants.

This disinformation narrative has been repeated since 2014 to present Moscow as a 'defensive' actor, while evidence clearly shows that Russia is the aggressor, including from its illegal annexation of Crimea to its ongoing occupation of Ukrainian cities. It also seeks to shift blame from the perpetrator to the victim, claiming that NATO expansion caused the war, when in fact the root cause lies in the Kremlin’s imperial ambitions and refusal to respect its neighbours’ independence.

See similar cases that NATO's desire for Ukraine is the reason for the special military operation, that NATO enlargement and EU sabotage of the Minsk agreements pushed Russia to intervene, that the role of NATO is to increase the confrontation with Russia, that NATO aims to destabilise Europe, that Russophobic Baltic NATO-States responsible for turning defensive NATO-alliance into a confrontation with Russia, and that NATO is leading humanity to WWIII.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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