Pro-Russian media in Ukraine provide cover-up for Russia’s aggression - expert

Pro-Russian media in Ukraine are covering up Russian aggression, in particular by circulating misleading reports about the latest phone call of the U.S. and Russian presidents.

That’s according to a Ukraine-based media expert, co-founder of StopFake disinformation watchdog Olha Yurkova, who spoke at a panel discussion hosted by Ukrinform.

"Over the two weeks, which included Putin's talks with Biden, we researched publications of pro-Russian media in Ukraine – such as Strana.UA and online platforms of 112 and NewsOne TV channels. What narratives emerged throughout this period? They claimed that it’s the West or the United States who stand behind the escalation, that is, the United States is stressing out Ukraine with information, provoking us to in turn provoke Russia. The second common narrative is that the Ukrainian government is unable to defend Ukraine because it is too weak. Sometimes come the reports that (Putin’s political crony in Ukraine Viktor - ed.) Medvedchuk knows how to solve this problem, but he remains under house arrest. Also, the attempts to discredit President (Volodymyr - ed.) Zelensky are part of standard rhetoric,” Yurkova said.

The pundit noted that both the Russian and pro-Russian media have not moved beyond this rhetoric for seven years already, while intensifying certain narratives and pushing other narratives to the background.

"They are now claiming that Zelensky is deliberately provoking escalation in order to divert attention from the problems existing in Ukraine. That is, because we have internal problems, we are deliberately provoking Russia to escalate. There’s 10% of such reports – not too many, but they are out there. And there’s one claiming NATO will not fight for Ukraine, that it will become Afghanistan 2.0, although the situation is different here and it is impossible to compare. There is also a narrative claiming that Ukraine is violating the Minsk agreements, and that it should be forced to fulfill them," said the expert.

According to Yurkova, all these media outlets refer to Russian sources, Russian speakers, and Russian data. It is also interesting that Strana.UA, which has always been famous for skillfully penning backgrounds information for its news pieces – because that's where the "devil" hides – has a standard background – that the U.S. is a source of information about the escalation, that Russia has denied everything, while in fact it is not the case, and Ukrainians don’t believe in this. At the same time, Ukraine is portrayed not as an actor, but as an object that can decide on nothing.

"What’s changed in these media since Biden's call with Putin is that they are now saying it was just a working meeting for Putin, something routine. Then there is the narrative claiming that Russia is very surprised that Biden is raising the issue of a possible invasion at all because nothing like that was being planned and Russia allegedly hadn’t intended to attack. But then there is a notion that "we did not intend to attack – perhaps only if there is no one to protect there" because there are 600,000 people who had been issued Russian passports," said Yurkova.

In this context, she recalled the emergence of the "genocide" topic as regards these (naturalized - ed.) citizens and that the standard Russian thesis about Ukrainian "neo-Nazis" was pulled out of the closet.

"On December 13, the reports came of 106 members of the ‘Ukrainian’ neo-Nazi organization ‘Maniacs: The Cult of Murderers’ (MKU) had been detained in 37 regions across Russia. This story has been developing throughout year. StopFake addressed that story. When three young men, ‘connected with Ukraine,’ were detained in Voronezh in March, our fact-checkers talked to the defendants in person, as well as with their families and even Russian law enforcement officers. And no one has confirmed any connection with Ukraine, that is, it turns out they are Russians ... But this time they mentioned no names, probably so that it was impossible to verify anything. And this, in fact, happened after this (Biden-Putin - ed.) call. So it seems that some humanitarian pretexts are being sought to justify the attack, aggression, and call it the opposite: ‘protection.’ And at least the Russian population is psychologically ready for this attack," the expert concluded.

im