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Loads of disinformation about Ukraine in a video promoting numerous pro-Russian narratives

In the interview, Logan describes the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a puppet dancing in high-heels thereby presenting him as a frivolous person who was part of the entertainment industry before becoming President

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Photo: Screenshot from a manipulative video about Zelenskyy and the Azov Batallion

As a guest in a morning show on a USA television, the famous controversial journalist Lara Logan presented loads of unfounded claims about the war in Ukraine and the Russian aggression that almost entirely overlapped with the Russian disinformation narratives about Ukraine and the West, 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:

There are many journalists telling the truth. Amazing Lara Logan in live program. Incredible interview with translation. Check it out!

The video shows the controversial journalist Lara Logan as a guest in a morning program on USA television, presenting many unfounded claims in favor of the narrative justifying Russian invasion of Ukraine. Asked to comment on the losses of the Russian Army in Ukraine reported by “Daily Mail”, Logan responded that she did not believe in that story and that Vladimir Putin knew very well what he was doing. Logan continued saying that the Russian Army was not lagging behind and that from the very beginning of the war Russia was working strategically by “targeting the biological weapon laboratories” first.

Vladimir Putin knew exactly what he was doing when he turned to Ukraine. Russia does not bother. What Russia has been doing from the very beginning is quite strategic. They did not hit on Kyiv, but targeted all the biological weapon laboratories throughout the entire country.

Logan claims that some of the laboratories are for biological weapons and they were built by the Russians in Soviet Union times. That was how they knew where they were located, and some of them – after the fall of the Soviet Union – were transformed into public health laboratories. Although not well articulated, the USA is believed to have participated in the process of converting the use of the laboratories as part of the program of Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Some of them were built by them and that is why they know about them. They know where they are located from Soviet Union times. We, on the other hand, within the framework of the Defense Threat Reduction Program, joined after the fall of the Soviet Union and, allegedly, converted them from biological weapon laboratories into public health laboratories, she says in her interview.

 

The stories about “laboratories for developing biological weapons in Ukraine” are part of the Russian propaganda narrative

The Russian side is promoting the thesis that these laboratories are a threat and that USA is, allegedly, behind them. The stories about the “American laboratories for biological weapons” are being published on the Internet since 2015 and were revitalized in context of the war in Ukraine. But, there is no evidence that the USA is funding the development of biological weapons in Ukraine. As reported by BBC, there are a dozen public health laboratories in Ukraine working on research and eliminating the threats from dangerous diseases.

Some of these laboratories were receiving financial support by the USA, EU and WHO, as was the case in other countries. In the 1990s, the USA commenced with the Biological Threat Reduction Program in order to reduce the risk from biological weapons in other states after the fall of the Soviet Union, including Ukraine.

Under this program, certain labs in Ukraine received funding from the US for modernization and equipment, but are not managed by the USA. Robert Pope, Director of Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, stated that these laboratories were managed by Ukraine itself.

The agreement between Washington and Kyiv to reduce the threat from biological weapons

US Defense Department has been working in partnership with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health on advancing the public health laboratories in the country since 2005. The US is providing technical assistance and cooperation to eliminate the threat of causing intentional, accidental or natural global infectuous diseases, but there is no evidence that they are working on the production of biological weapons as claimed by the Russian side and reported by Lara Logan. Last January, the American Defence Department announced that the program aims to accomplish exactly the opposite – reduce the threat from biological weapons.

The Azov Batallion used again as evidence for Nazism in Ukraine

Journalist Logan continued by focusing on the Azov Battalion, the controversial military formation in Ukraine claiming that it was funded by NATO and the USA. She uses the topic to open the story on Nazism in Ukraine. She stated that Western Ukraine supported the Nazis in the Second World War, that it was the seat of Nazi SS units and that CIA granted immunity to the Ukrainian Nazis to avoid the Nuremberg trials. The journalist also claimed that the US and its Intelligence Agency have a long history of financing arms for the Nazis in Ukraine.

The presence of Nazi ideology in Ukraine is depicted through the example of Azov Battalion which was the reason for holding a referendum for the independence of Crimea and its annexation to Russia, concludes Logan.

In her presentation, Lara Logan indicates that ”the salvation from the Ukrainian Nazism” is the key reason for the independence of Crimea that took place in 2014. In that respect, the cessation and annextaion to Russia was reasonable and the crimes of Azov in Donbas were the living proof for that. Azov Battalion was established as a military unit in May 2014. As published by Al Jazeera, the members of this far-right volunteer military unit are ultra-nationalists accused for ideology close to the belief in supremacy of the white race.

The unit was initially formed as a volunteer group led by Andriy Biletsky consisting of the ultra-nationalist gang “Patriots of Ukraine” and the Neo-Nazi group. As Al Jazeera puts it, both groups engaged in xenophobic and Neo-Nazi ideals and physically assaulted migrants, the Roma community and people opposing their views. As a battalion, the group faught against the Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine, one of the two main regions whose independence was recognized by Putin.

However, the Nazi groups that exist in contemporary Ukraine – as in other European countries – cannot influence the Parliament, they do not participate in the government and it is not clear how they can serve as an excuse for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The report “Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats” published by the European External Action Service states that one of the most frquently used narratives is that ”Ukraine is a Nazi and terrorist country” and that it supports such groups.

Truthmeter has already covered the topic about the conspiracy theory disseminated byQAnon followers who believe that the “war in Ukraine is cleansing satanists”.

Zelenskyy as a CIA-selected puppet

In the interview, Logan describes the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as a puppet dancing in high-heels thereby presenting him as a frivolous person who was part of the entertainment industry before becoming President. Unsubstantiated Logan claims that in the revolution in 2013 and 2014 was funded by CIA and that Volodymyr Zelenskyy was “fixed”, not elected on democratic elections.

Therefore, you really need to ask yourself – knowing that the CIA funded the “colour revolution” in Ukraine in 2013 and 2014 – whether they selected the Ukrainian leaders as well. Zelenskyy is also fixed as many of our leaders. And, honestly, with technology and election frauds throughout the world, we can never tell how many of our leaders are really elected on elections and how many are installed, says Logan.

Finally, she promotes the thesis of the conspiracy theory of deep state in the USA and the globalists taking over the world, something that Putin has been warning about for the last 15 years. She speculates that Ukraine is in the centre of political affairs with money-laudering in the USA and that we should not pretend that this war is between Russia and Ukraine only.

An impertinent lie is to say that this war is Russia against Ukraine. If for the last 15 years Putin has been warning that he will not stand aside while globalists are taking over the world, eracting buildings for biological weapons or whatever they are doing through the Ukrainian olygarhs in Ukraine. Ukraine is the money-laundering centre for many leaders. Billions of American Dollars have been laundered through Ukraine, and nobody is saying anything about that. These are the taxes that we are paying. There is so much hypocracy and dishonesty involved, and Ukraine is in the centre of all that. And you know what – deep state is not a conspiracy theory. The state is really deep, says Logan.

However, it is not true that CIA was the sponsor of the revolution i.e., the Maidan protests in 2014 and Truthmetre already covered that topic.

Euromaidan – the wave of protests, civic disobidence, riots and armed clashes erupted in the evening of 21 November 2013 and the Ukrainian citizens commenced with the demonstration in Kyiv. The previous day, the Ukrainian government suspended the preparations for signing the Association Agreement and the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union, which was the reason for the protests. Despite the increased number of Police units, the protests continued, supported by the students as well. 30 November, the authorities resorted to violence against the protesters which only increased the size of the demonstrations to more than 1.5 million protesters.

A large number of global media and international institutions and organizations present the Euromaidan events as the biggest pro-European riot in the history of Ukraine. 30 March 2012, the EU and Ukraine signed an Association Agreement, but the Agreement was not ratified because Ukraine received guidelines to improve the deteriorated state of democracy and the rule of law in the country.

On 21 November 2013, by means of a Decree, the Ukrainian Government suspended the preparations for signing the Association Agreement. The official reason was that “the industrial output of Ukraine dropped in the previous months”. The Government of Ukraine claimed that it will continue with the preparations for the Agreement when the industrial output will be compensated by the European market.

President Yanukovych participated on the EU Summit that took place in Vilnius, Lithuania in the period 28-29 November 2013 where the Association and Trade Exchange Agreement was to be signed, but the Agreement was never signed. Financial Times published that the 2013 protests were “spontaneous, caused by the social networks and caught the Ukrainian opposition unprepared” unlike their opponents.

Euromaidan – modernist revolution of Ukraine

According to the historian from Lavov, Yaroslav Hrytsak, this represented:

Revolution of the generation that can be called modernists for Ukrainian independence, a revolution of young people who are well-educated, people who are active on the social networks, who are mobile and 90 percent of them are graduates with no future.

According to him, young Ukrainians have the same attributes as young Italians, Czechs, Poles or Germans and are drastically different from the Ukrainians over 50 years old.

This generation has an enormous drive for European integration and just a few regional divisions unlike the older generation, he deems.

The protests initiated in Kyiv in November 2013 were a result of the disatisfaction Ukrainians felt for the previous President, Viktor Yanukovych, and his decision at the very last moment to change the direction and after 7 years of negotiation not to sign the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. Due to the Russian pressure exerted, that ceased the progress of raproachement of Ukraine towards the EU.

Yanukovych ended up fleeing and a transitional government took matters into its hands. That was when soldiers without state insignia occupied Crimea and placed Russian flags. After the referendum, which is not recognized by the international community, the Russian Federation annexed Crimea.

Claiming that Volodymyr Zelenskyy came into power in a undemocratic manner – or that he was selected by powerful people – as well as his presentation as a puppet is spreading disinformation and part of the well-promoted propagandistic idea that the citizens of Ukraine do not elect their democratic government, but it simply is imposed on them is, of course, not true bearing in mind the fact that the elections in Ukraine took place and the voters from Ukraine elected Volodymyr Zelenskyy for their president.

Due to all of the above-noted facts, the post fact-checked is assessed as untrue.

 


This article was produced within the project Promoting Access to Reliable News to Counter Disinformation, implemented by the Metamorphosis Foundation. The article, originally published by Truthmeter, was produced with support from the American non-profit foundation NED (National Endowment for Democracy). The content of this article is the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Metamorphosis, NED or their partners.
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