Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 24/03/2022
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has been guided by the rhetoric of “liberating the country from the Nazis”. It is unclear to many how the Ukrainians became Nazis overnight, except to those supporting the Kremlin and policies adopted in Moscow. Many of them are on social networks. By exchanging theses, they are trying to turn Russian propaganda into an open call for a showdown with the Ukrainian government.
A video appeared on one of the Facebook profiles, accompanied by the following text:
“8 years of suffering of civilians, mostly children, mothers, the elderly, murders, holding civilians hostage so that the government would continue to rule with the help of neo-Nazis! My great support to the federal military service to clean Ukraine from the Fascists! With God’s help, with as few innocent victims as possible”.
The video shows suffering and painful images of the war. The narrative revolves around the events in Donbas, the disputed Ukrainian region in the east, where it all began eight years ago.
What this video and the accompanying text are trying to spin is that since 2014, Ukrainians have committed numerous crimes against the pro-Russian population in Donetsk and Luhansk. Otherwise, legally – the Ukrainian territories. Everything was also fueled by the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zaharova, who is very active and popular on the networks.
In one of her posts, she asks the question: where were all these countries throughout these eight years to condemn the killing of 13 thousand of people? She concludes: Russia did not start the war. Russia is finishing it.
DW also analyzed the post, with a headline suggesting that it is a lie that Ukraine is to blame for starting the war.
Ukrainians are defending their territorial integrity
Although it is almost unbelievable to connect the Ukrainian government with Nazism, especially President Zelensky, who is a Jew, Russian propaganda does not stop. The posts, such as the mentioned video, try to impose the narrative that the Ukrainians committed crimes in Donbas and killed thousands of people and committed war crimes. The chronology of events provides an answer to such a claim.
The saga with Ukraine began in 2014, when a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was overthrown in violent protests. Shortly afterward, the Russians annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, in the country’s southeast. Then riots broke out in the Donbas region, i.e., the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Pro-Russian separatists, aided by the Russian army and weapons, managed to occupy administrative buildings and declare independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, demanding that they join Russia. Russia supported it.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian army has been in constant conflict with the separatists, which has led to losses on both sides. According to the UN representative for human rights report, between 2014 and 2020, about 13 thousand people died in this region, of which over 5,000 pro-Russian separatists and more than 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
What preceded the direct invasion of Ukraine was precisely Russia’s position to recognize the independent states of Donetsk and Luhansk. This, in fact, served as an official excuse for the attack. And from that moment on, members of the Ukrainian government became “neo-Nazis“.
Whether the Ukrainian army has been killing innocent people since 2014 will be determined by courts and international organizations. What is certain for sure is that they defended and are defending their country from the invasion.
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