Russian Narrative related to Ukraine war
While the entire world is watching the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine where the war is being fought between people on the ground with guns, tanks, fighter jets missiles, there is another war going on, which goes mostly unnoticed, the propaganda war, for every conflict there are three narratives two narratives by the two parties involved, and the truth somewhere between the two narratives. In any conflict, it is important to know the narrative of both sides to get to a most reasonable conclusion. The western narrative is widely available on social, electronic and print media all across the world, even in the remotest regions. But the Russian narrative has limited access and limited audience. And nowhere to be found in social media or print media across the world.
To analyze the Russian narrative this article will provide an analysis of sources directly from Russia. Most of the information we see about the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is based on the western narrative, this is for several reasons, one of those reasons is the Russian media is not as vast as western media and well connected to all parts of the world. To look at the Russian narrative of the ongoing conflict we need to understand Russia’s concern regarding Ukraine over the past two decades. In the later period of 2021, Moscow called on NATO to give up military activities in Eastern Europe and to stop the US-led military bloc (NATO) expansion further eastward. The White House rejected the proposals saying that the Russian demands are unacceptable, In 2022 Ukraine received several weapons and military supplies from the US and other NATO countries.
Russia is calling the ongoing activities of Russian troops in Ukraine special military operations and not an Invasion. On 24 Feb, Russia's President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia is initiating special military operations in Donbass at the request of the "People’s republics of Donbass. He also mentioned that the goal of these special military operations is to protect the people who are subjected to abuse and genocide for 8 years by the Kiev regime. President in a video address 0n 24 Feb 2022 said that “The decision to carry out an operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine threatening the people of Donbass and Russian citizens.” The legitimacy of the claims of Ukraine having a nazi presence is questionable and wasn't proved to any extent. He also stressed that they don’t have any plans to occupy the Ukrainian territory and the operations are only for demilitarizing and denazify Ukraine.
Questioning the legitimacy of Ukraine's claims over the Donbass region, Putin made a few statements explaining the history of the formation of Ukraine and the inclusion of the Donbass region into Ukraine. He said that soviet Ukraine was created as a result of Bolshevik policy and the Donbass was squeezed into Ukraine, he also said that in 1945 Khruschev granted Crimea to Ukraine, taking it away from Russia. (Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014). He also said that he will show what genuine de-communization means for Ukraine.
On 28 Mar, the chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center Mikhail Mizintsev said that Army units with Third Reich (Nazi) symbols are operating within the armed forces of Ukraine, he also mentioned that support from the EU and the US has given the Nazism a free hand, and they are tasked to exterminate everything that counters their unhuman ideas, and they target children, women and old people.
Russia is denying all the allegations of launching an attack on Ukraine. The narrative of the Before the start of the “special operations”, Russia recognized the independence of the two republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, which come under the Donbas region of Ukraine, Russia recognised the independence of these two republics on 15 Apr. according to Russia, after the DPR and LPR announced their independence, the heads of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Denis Pushilin and Leonid Pasechnik announced the evacuation of citizens to Russia
According to Pushilin, Vladimir Zelensky, the president of Ukraine was going to invade the territories of the DPR and LPR. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu on 21 Feb said that the Ukrainian military shelled Donetsk using heavy weapons. The upper council authorized Putin to use Russia’s armed forces outside Russia for the situation in Donbas on 22 Feb. the leaders of DPR and LPR asked Russia to repel Ukraine’s aggression in the region and the president launched the “special military operations” Ukraine.
Russia laid down a few conditions for Kiev in order to stop the operations in Ukraine.
Those are:
· Ukraine halts its military activity.
· enshrine neutrality in its Constitution.
· acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory
· recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics
Russia wants Ukraine to make amendments to their constitution where Ukraine would reject any possibility of entering any bloc (eg: NATO). They also asked Ukraine to respect the rights of Russian speaking population and other ethnicities, the Ukraine however refused these conditions. The Kremlin spokesperson also mentioned that Russia is not seeking to make any further territorial claims on Ukraine.
Russian Defence Ministry said that they were not targeting Ukraine cities, and they are only taking out the military infrastructure of Ukraine. Moscow said that during the special operations the forces of Russia uncovered documents on Biolabs which were supported by Pentagon and working on developing bioweapon components. The US rejected these findings as misinformation at first but later on 08 Mar US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland said that there are biological research facilities in Ukraine and the US tried to prevent Russian forces from seizing them. member of the Russian delegation Leonid Slutsky on 04 Mar said that Moscow has been warning the international community regarding the biological laboratories of the US which were violating international obligations blatantly, but the “world community” has been turning a blind eye to it.
On 08 Apr head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center Mikhail Mizintsev said that the UN, the OSCE or the ICRC and the western countries haven’t reacted to the cruel executions and monstrous tortures of the Russian prisoners of War by the Ukrainian forces. He also said that the International Committee of the Red Cross, international human rights organizations, and the so-called ‘civilized West’ are being indifferent to the Russian federation initiated humanitarian issues. He noted that the kiev regime is in the violation of Geneva convention and that Russia is undertaking every effort to show the world the real truth, he also emphasized that all the crimes of the Ukrainian army and nationalist battalion are being documented carefully and being sent to the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the OSCE and the embassies of foreign countries, and other international organizations.
Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, on 08 Apr said that the Ukrainian nationalists are keeping more than 6,300 foreign nationals from 13 countries as hostages. He also said that they are using the hostages as a human shield. Russia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya in a security council meeting on 27 Feb said that the crisis didn’t begin with special military operations of Russia in Ukraine, but it was started eight years ago and the west has been turning a blind eye to the Ukrainian neo-Nazi’s crimes in Donbas.
Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin regarding the news being published in the UK said that "All the main four newspapers came out with exactly the same editorials, the photos are the same. Only fake news is published, that we are allegedly erasing cities by bombings, bombing only the civilian population,"[1] he also said that the data given by the defence ministry of Russia was mentioned in the news. He stressed that only one point of view is being seen in British newspapers and broadcasters.
Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev of the Russian armed forces said that Kiev authorities ordered nationalist battalions to make staged videos of mass murder, and looting allegedly carried out by Russian forces. He said that they came to know about this from testimonies, of surrendered Ukrainian servicemen. Russia has been releasing statements about delivering tons of aid to the people fleeing to Russia from Ukraine, and helping people to evacuate from the vulnerable regions of conflict, the authorities have been frequently releasing the number of refugees (hundreds of thousands according to statements released from Russia) and aid provided by Russia.
Russia has been voicing their concerns about the NATO eastwards expansion in the region and west especially the United States arming the bordering countries of Russia with the US weapons. Russia expressed their dissatisfaction over the coup in Ukraine, it also expressed its concerns over the possibility of Ukraine getting into NATO because it will ruin the balance of mutual deterrence in Europe and endanger the security of Russia. Most of the statements and incidents didn’t get as much public light as the news which was published by western media sympathetic to the Ukraine regime, western countries and NATO countries. Russia is saying they achieved the main goals of the first stage of special military operation in Ukraine, that they significantly decreased the combat potential of Ukraine, they established air supremacy, and they are going to focus on their main goal of-the liberation of Donbass. Kremlin says that they are confident about achieving the goals of military operations fully.
Notes
[1] https://tass.com/world/1416381
Pic Courtsey-Eugene at unsplash.com
(The views expressed are those of the author and do not represent views of CESCUBE.)
