After ten years of unprovoked aggression and over two years of full-scale invasion Russian propaganda keeps influencing people’s minds around the globe.
The following arguments seek to distinguish truth from Russian lies.
Russia fights NATO in Ukraine. NATO uses Ukraine as a pawn in its war effort
For centuries, Ukraine has fought against Russia’s imperialism. Ukraine’s people bravely resisted overwhelming Russian forces since the early days of the full-scale invasion. NATO countries and other allies started sending help later, when they saw that the army, economy, and state of Ukraine were strong enough.
Moreover, Ukraine has proposed a “peace formula” to overcome the Russian threat, and defined its attitudes regarding various peace proposals, stating that «only Ukraine, the country fighting against this war of aggression, can define what just and sustainable peace looks like».
Unlike virtuous anti-colonialist Russia Ukraine is an ally of the evil colonialist US and Europe
Russia spreads this narrative in the postcolonial countries, instrumentalizing positive memories of the Soviet Union and its support for wars of independence against Western colonialists. On the other hand, they remain mute on the conquest of the peoples of Eastern Europe and Asia, as well as the Wagner group’s notable presence in today’s Africa.
Ukraine’s war is a classic independence struggle, an anti-colonial struggle for the freedom to determine its own destiny, including its foreign and domestic policies, and international alliances. Ukraine assists Russia’s decolonization while it maintains its imperialist policies towards a number of indigenous peoples inside its own boundaries.
The people of Ukraine are fiercely hostile, who continue fighting even if peace can be achieved. Thus, Ukraine desires war above peace
Prior to the Russian invasion, Ukraine showed no signs of aggressiveness and had no desire to attack Russian territory. Ukraine must free its own territory from foreign occupying forces, starting with the Kharkiv area and ending with Crimea. One of the main components of the peace formula put out by the Ukrainian leadership is the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity and the liberation of Ukrainian land.
Nationalists rule in Ukraine. Ukraine is witnessing the growth of nationalism, a terrible philosophy that has caused numerous tragedies, including world wars.
While right-wing nationalistic parties are becoming more and more popular throughout Europe, the last time the right did well in Ukrainian elections was in 2012, when they received 8.2 percent of the vote. Since then, extreme right parties have only won one out of 450 seats in the 2019 parliamentary election and just 1.3% of the seats in the 2014 election. This illustrates how widespread right-wing nationalist ideologies actually are in the multi cultural and multi confessional society of Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine both are autocracies. In a conflict between authoritarian regimes, democracies ought to oppose both sides.
Ukraine is a parliamentary democracy that has regular free elections and fierce political rivalry. After more than 30 years of independence, Ukraine has already elected six presidents and the current parliament elected in 2019 has 76% new members. In contrast, Putin’s dictatorship in Russia has maintained control over the country for nearly 25 years, which is a blatant indication of an authoritarian state.
Due to its limited resources Ukraine is unable to beat Russia. Russia has never lost a war. Russia wins anyway because it is too big and possesses nuclear weapons
From Vietnam to Afghanistan, there are many examples of a smaller nation triumphing over a larger one. Furthermore, Russia has a long history of losing wars — the Winter War, the Russo-Japanese War, the Crimean War, including one lost in Afghanistan during the nuclear era.
Russia is indeed a big but very archaic state. It can conscript untrained manpower, but it is unable to produce modern advanced weaponry. In order to avoid sanctions, Russia may only buy military materials through hidden backdoors, which will be blocked very soon.
In summary, even with the vast resources that the country has dedicated to propagating misinformation it is not hard to identify and disprove Russia’s narratives, or at least to stop them from spreading.
