Tank row in surburban Kyiv. Photo: Wikipedia

Back in December 2021, Western leaders called upon Russia to calm the tensions and promised to support Ukraine in case of any kind of threat from Moscow. On 24 February 2022, Russia – not the Western elites – performed complete military invasion in Ukraine and started a war of terrifying consequences for the whole world, but mostly for Ukraine, which was forced to defend itself аs a sovereign and democratic country from the attacks of foreign military forces within its own borders, writes Truthmeter.mk.

Under the content-sharing agreement between Truthmeter.mk and Meta.mk, we republish the text below:

We are fact-checking a post published on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) claiming that:

Western elites are getting ready to enjoy the final escalation of the previous long-term preparations of the war – “Brother against Brother”. How long are we going to be disunited, Stupid Slavic Tribes!?

On 24 February 2022, it was Russia – not the Western elites – that performed complete military invasion of Ukraine, i.e., started a war with terrifying consequences for the whole world, but mostly for Ukraine, that was forced to defend itself as a sovereign and democratic country from the attacks of foreign military forces within its own borders. The manner in which Russia is trying to justify its military aggression in Ukraine is diverse, but the facts point out that Moscow is trying to implement its imperialistic ambitions in Ukraine by using its own arms and brutal tactics, including attacks on civilians. NATO is providing support to Ukraine, because Ukraine has the right to self defense, as specified in the United Nations Charter. Individual NATO Member-States continue to secure military support to Ukraine, but that does not make the Western countries “makers” of the war prepared and performed by Russia.

Kremlin has been spreading disinformation and propaganda to serve its purpose for a long time now. All that is done is dissemination of untruths as to justify the unprovoked, unwarranted invasion of Ukraine. The invasion devastated Ukrainian economy that decreased for more than 30 percent since the beginning of 2022. The level of poverty in Ukraine increased from 5.5 percent in 2021 to 25 percent in 2022. The invasion displaced 14 million people, resulting with a humanitarian disaster and World Bank is expecting serious impediments for the Ukrainian economic capacity for the upcoming years. More details about the ramifications of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine were presented here.

Deutche Welle, in one analysis, has noted that the support for Ukraine by the Western partners by means of financial aid and delivery of arms is abused by Putin as justification for his favourite claim that ”Ukraine is controlled from the outside” and that is ”powered up by NATO armed forces and filled with the most modern weapons”.

Worth noting is the fact that in mid 2022, when Russia was deeply into its military invasion of Ukraine, Sergey Kiriyenko stated that “NATO was fighting against Russia until the last Ukrainian”, a narrative similar to the one in the post we are fact-checking ”brother against brother”. The truth is being twisted by applying the tactic of accussing NATO for warring against Russia by using the Ukrainians who are “Russian brothers”, when in actual fact Russia is the one fighting Ukraine in the attempt to takeover as much as possible of its sovereign territory, thereby violating international law, and subsequently, leaving a large number of casualties of the military aggression.

NATO condemns Russian brutal and unprovoked military aggression of Ukraine, which is an independent country. NATO and the Allies continue to support Ukraine in its undisputable right to self-defence.

Article 5 as a security guarantee enables collective defence giving the right to the Alliance to send arms to Ukraine without threatening its security. In addition, well-established structure for common standards of the Alliance and the interoperable systems enable the Alliance to send equipment with the certainty that supplies to Ukraine can be topped up with compatible equipment from the other allies. Individual NATO Member-States send arms, ammunition and a great deal of light and heavy military equipment, including anti-tank and air defence systems, drones and tanks. Up to date, NATO allies have secured equipment worth a billion Euros for Ukraine. In addition, the allies are also training Ukrainian troops to use the equipment. This helps Ukraine uphold its right to self-defence enshrined in the UN Charter, states the website of NATO.

Although the fact-checked post claims that the West was planning the war for a long time, it was Russia that in the early morning of 24th February invaded Ukraine although constantly denying that it will attack.

By air, land and water, Russia launched a devastating attack on Ukraine – European democracy of 44 million people. For months, President Vladimir Putin denied that he will attack his neighbour, but soon terminated the Peace Deal by sending troops across the border to the North, East and South of Ukraine. As the number of casualties increased, he was accused for violating the peace in Europe, published BBC at the time.

Towards the end of 2021, Russia started deploying a large number of trrops on the borders with Ukraine although constantly denying that it will attack. After that, Putin discarded the 2015 Peace Deal for the East and recognized the oblasts controlled by the rebels as independent. Initiating the Russian invasion on 24th February, Putin accused NATO for threatening the historic future of the Nation.

Facts, on the other hand, are saying that Western leaders, back in December last year, called upon Russia to calm tensions and promised to support Ukraine in case of any kind of Moscow-related threat. US president Joe Biden, talked with British leader Boris Johnson, and with the leaders of France, Italy and Germany, agreeing to resort to all possible tools to prevent the aggression.

USA and EU expressed great concern and on several occasions tried to prevent the attack. In the Resolution adopted in December 2021 by Members of the European Parliament, they called upon Russia to withdraw its troops threatening Ukraine and stated that every aggression from Moscow will have a high economic and political price.

Members of the Parliamentary External Affairs Committee and the Security and Defence Sub-committee went on a fact-finding mission in Ukraine from 30th January to 1st February 2022.

On 22nd February, leading Members of the European Parliament strongly condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recognition of the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine as independent entities.

Evidently, Russia was the one that was long-time planning its invasion of Ukraine, not the West. The EU and USA condemned the invasion and called upon Putin to withdraw his troops and stop the war, but that did not happen. Then the West made it clear that it had no intention to send combat troops to Ukraine, but only weapons and field hospitals. At the same time the West directed its attention to the Russian economy, financial institutions and individuals and, in parallel, started supporting Ukraine with all that it needed to defend itself.

Due to all of the above-noted facts, we assess the post fact-checked as untrue. Western elites are not preparing to enjoy the escalation of the long-time prepared war. They have not scheduled a war, nor do they enjoy its escalation since that means lost lives and destroyed cities. Moreover, from a general geostrategic viewpoint, escalation is not favorable for anyone, because it can bring about war spillover in Europe. The narrative that in the war they are fighting “brother against brother” i.e., disunited and controlled Slav tribes or directed by the West to play one against the other is not applicable in a situation when a country penetrates the territory of another sovereign and democratic country and starts bombarding.