Former deputy of the pro-Russian OPZZh (Opposition platform — for life) party Viktor Medvedchuk, whom Ukraine accuses of high treason and deprived of citizenship, published an article in the Russian media Izvestiia (News), which calls the war in Ukraine a “Ukrainian issue”, about the alleged “anatomy” of the modern military confrontation between Ukraine and Russia, as well as the role of the West in this war. In his work, he promotes a lot of disinformation messages that reproduce the position of Russian propaganda. Detector Media has prepared a selection of them.

The European Union has the ambitions of a colonizer

In his article, Viktor Medvedchuk expresses his opinion about the EU's attempts to create colonies. According to the article, after winning the Cold War, Europe is trying to “absorb” its opponent, that is, Russia and the post-Soviet countries. He uses the wars in Georgia and Syria as an argument. Like, the European Union is trying to split the state and absorb them.

In fact, the wars in Georgia and Syria took place with the direct participation and even at the initiative of Russia, so one can talk about the ambitions of the colonialist, but they are shown not by the EU countries, but by Russia. It is Russia that is the aggressor in the case of Ukraine, because it was it who started the war in Ukraine back in 2014 - with the seizure of Crimea and the fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Ukraine gained independence without a national liberation struggle

The article says that Ukraine gained independence due to an agreement with Moscow, which even pushed our state to this decision, because it was beneficial to Russia in economic terms. In fact, Ukraine fought for its independence.

In particular, on December 1, 1991, a referendum was held on the need to declare independence. Then the turnout at the polling stations was unprecedented - 31,891,742 people. At that time, this amounted to 84% of the total population. At that time, 90% of the people voted for independence, only 7% were against it, and another 2% of the ballots were declared invalid.

Before the referendum, the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada addressed the people with the words that “not supporting independence means supporting dependence”, but there is no such country that Ukraine would aspire to become dependent on. The message about the so-called gifted independence is not new to Russian propaganda. Russia has been trying for years to create the appearance that Ukraine became independent only thanks to it, and, in general, Russian propaganda is trying to promote the opinion that Ukraine would not exist at all if it were not for Russia.

Ukraine began to promote anti-Russian propaganda and this led to the creation of “two Ukraines”

According to Medvedchuk, after the first Maidan, that is, after the Orange Revolution, Ukraine began to promote anti-Russian propaganda. That is what he calls taking a course towards joining the European Union and NATO, as well as restoring certain pages in the history of Ukraine. In particular, such anti-Russian propaganda was allegedly Yushchenko's policy towards the Holodomor. In particular, the recognition of his genocide of the Ukrainian people.

In fact, even after the proclamation of the European course, the policy on Russia in Ukraine has not changed. The only exception was the orientation towards European values, which, according to Medvedchuk in his article, Russia also tried to instill in its people. However, in Ukraine, legislative norms were introduced that worked for the spread of the Ukrainian language, etc. Such a policy to protect the state language, according to the Russian narrative, is also anti-Russian. No one banned the Russian language in Ukraine, moreover, they still do not.

The increase in the amount of anti-Russian propaganda in the information flow, Medvedchuk argues, has led to the emergence of “two Ukraines”: one of them is pro-Russian and the other is anti-Russian. This approach suggests the idea of the disunity of Ukraine and the ethnicity of the pro-Russian, that is, the southeastern part to the aggressor country. The existence of “two Ukraines” is a common message promoted by Russian propaganda, including Medvedchuk. It is really intended to divide Ukrainian society, to turn people against each other.

Ukraine is connected with Russia culturally and mentally

The kinship of the cultures of the Ukrainian and Russian people is another message that is very often used by hostile media. They write that by abandoning Russian culture, we are losing a significant part of our own. The Russian media are actively manipulating opinions about a common cultural space and history for the sake of emotional pressure. Medvedchuk also mentioned this message in his article.

Ukraine was part of the Russian Empire, and then in the USSR for a total of 300 years, and all this time the pro-Russian authorities of these states pursued a rather cruel policy on the Ukrainian language, culture and economy. The most famous bans on the Ukrainian language are the Valuiev circular and Emsk decree, but Ukrainian was banned 134 times in total. Therefore, cultural products created by Ukrainians were also often written in Russian. In particular, books or operas, and Moscow assigns everything written in Russian.

It is impossible to talk about the kinship of our peoples, because the Ukrainians were held by force and repeatedly suppressed the liberation struggle. For example, this happened after the Ukrainian central council proclaimed the fourth universal (bill) about the independence of the Ukrainian People's Republic.

To end the war, Europe must take into account the interests of Russia

In his article, Medvedchuk expresses the opinion that the end of the war is possible only if Moscow's interests are taken into account. They also consist in the preservation of the occupied territories as part of Russia.

The aggressor state is trying to persuade Ukraine to negotiate in order to end the war on favorable terms, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has repeatedly noted that peace is possible only if all territories are de-occupied in accordance with the 1991 borders. Promoting an opinion about “Moscow's interests” means nothing more than another ultimatum.

The Ukrainian political elite does not need peace

According to Medvedchuk, the Ukrainian authorities are not interested in peace. It seems that they continue to wage war in order to get more money and weapons. In general, Russia does not stop trying to discredit Ukrainian politicians.

In fact, such a statement is not true, because at the beginning of the war, Zelenskyi turned to Putin and asked for personal negotiations, but he refused. Now Ukraine has withdrawn from the negotiation process due to the unfavorable conditions offered by Russia.

Ukraine needs peace, but not “some”, but with the preservation of statehood, sovereignty and security guarantees. It is Russia that does not want to end the war, because its military is still on the territory of Ukraine and continues to kill Ukrainians, destroy Ukrainian cities, villages and infrastructure.

This is not the first time Russia has been spreading messages and manipulations to resume negotiations with Ukraine. For example, recently Russian propaganda also talked about “their interests” in the negotiation process with Ukraine. The supply of weapons to Ukraine, which the Russian propaganda media called a theatrical performance, was not ignored either.

The messages expressed by Viktor Medvedchuk repeat the theses of Russian propaganda and their dissemination has the same goal: to justify Russia's aggression in Ukraine, to explain it with so-called historical justice, to create the appearance that Ukraine is not complete without Russia and its culture, to devalue the struggle of the Ukrainian people for their statehood.