Opposed to the claims in the post we are fact-checking, Putin is the one who made a decision – completely unprovoked – to attack the territorial integrity of a sovereign country. In addition, Washington is constantly stressing that Russia can stop the war in Ukraine as soon as tomorrow, provided it withdraws from the territory of Ukraine. This means that the USA do not want war in Ukraine, but supports its right to self-defense, 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 on the social network Facebook (screenshot here) stating the following:
Washington lured Putin to go into Ukraine. Those from Washington came to the conclusion that this is their opportunity to destroy Russia. And see what happened…
This narrative originates from Putin himself, but the Western countries and Ukraine categorically reject it as untrue. US administration has already formally concluded that Moscow has committed crimes against humanity during the invasion of Ukraine. Putin, on the other hand, constantly denies responsibility for the war initiated in Ukraine and projects all the blame on the West and the USA.
Towards the end of February, Putin in a speech of almost two hours was trying to justify Russia’s invasion by claiming that it was carried out to enable the citizens of Donbas to speak ”their own language”! According to him, NATO enlargement and the new European defense systems are a ”provocation for Russia”, while the ”goal of the West is unlimited power”.
Contrary to this, NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, says that Russia was the aggressor and Putin had made it clear he was preparing for more war. He clearly stated that the support for Ukraine must continue and expressed concerns China was planning to back Russia in the war, according to Reuters.
Political analysts say that Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine is the biggest mistake of his political career and will bring about enormous consequences.
As specified on the website of the Canadian Government fighting disinformation and propaganda narratives, Russia is the one that attacked Ukraine. Page number 1 of this link states that:
Russia dismissed all NATO’s efforts to discuss respective security concerns to prevent a war. Ukraine is exercising its UN-recognized right to self-defense. Russia continues to aggressively violate its neighbors’ territorial integrity and independence. Countries like Finland and Sweden ask to join NATO because it is a defensive alliance whose purpose is to protect its member-states, states the website.
In addition, on page 3, it is pointed out that Russia continues to demonstrate commitment to its maximalist war aims, which is at odds with its professed “openness” to a negotiated settlement to the conflict.
For example, Russia insists, as a precondition to any peace agreement, that the four contested regions of Ukraine are and must remain part of Russia. Russia knows its preconditions are a non-starter for Ukraine, indicating that Russia is currently unwilling to negotiate a good-faith peace agreement, specifies page 3 of the website.
Contrary to the post we are fact-checking, Putin is not a small child to be “lured” into Ukraine where he, in actual fact, has launched a full-scale invasion against an independent state whose sovereignty Russia agreed to respect in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.
Russia held sham “referendums” in a blatant attempt to annex four regions within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders, actions that the UN General Assembly has declared have no validity under international law. Russia, also, illegally annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in 2014 and has engaged in other illegal acts of aggression against neighboring states, including Georgia. Russia’s flagrant disregard for the territorial integrity of a sovereign nation is a clear violation of international legal principles enshrined in the United Nations’ Charter, specifies page 3 of the Canadian Government’s website on countering disinformation narratives related to the war.
The presence of NATO forces in the Eastern part of the Alliance is not a threat to Russia, because NATO is a defensive Alliance, whose purpose is to protect its allies. NATO has increased its military presence in the Eastern part of the Alliance as a direct result of Russia’s behavior, which reflects a predictable pattern/scheme of aggressive actions against its neighbors. NATO’s military presence does not pose a threat to Russia’s army of 1 million troops. Washington is constantly stressing that Russia can stop the war in Ukraine the next day if it withdraws from its territory. That indicates that the USA does not want a war in Ukraine, but support its right to self-defense.
Therefore, due to all of the above-noted facts, the post fact-checked is assessed as untrue.
