Neither mass media have recognized that “Ukraine is Done With”, nor should journalists be blamed for the thousands of lives lost in Ukraine, as the post claims. The journalists did not encourage the military invasion of Ukraine, Russia did, while Ukraine responded with the support of its Western partners to defend its right to self-defense. In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated for Reuters that Ukraine may even achieve results on the battlefield towards the end of the year and that it has specific directions to follow, 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) that claims the following:
Mass media finally admit: Ukraine is done with. All those selling the story of Ukraine’s victory in the last year is either paid propagandist or a completely ROTTEN idiot. Zelenskyy will end up like all other American allies. There’s only one left for them now: No one. More than 550 thousand lives have been lost due to corrupt politicians and “career” journalists. Such a shame!
It is not true that 550 thousands of Ukrainian lives have been lost due to corrupt politicians or career journalists. Firstly, the number of Ukrainian war victims is unknown. Different sources report different numbers, but no one knows the exact number except for the Ukrainian authorities and they are not revealing that information just as the Russian authorities are not reporting the number of Russian victims. On top of that, the post is not quite clear about what it is referring to – whether to the victims from the beginning of the military actions in 2014 or to the beginning of the universal aggression from 24 February 2022. The source of this information is not known either. Nevertheless, the reason for the victims of this war – not just the Ukrainians but in general – is that Russia carried out a military invasion in Ukraine that was unprovoked. Although an independent, sovereign, and democratic country, Ukraine became Russia’s target. This invasion was directly felt by the Ukrainians who suffered enormous damages and are still fighting for their national independence.
The implications of the Russian military invasion can be felt beyond the Ukrainian borders along with the horror suffered. They are at the heart of contemporary international law and the world order that it has helped to create. The seriousness of this threat to the prohibition on the use of force, to the territorial integrity of states, and to the basic right of peoples to determine their own political fates should be clear. The governments of the EU recognize these principles and thus support the right of Ukraine to defend itself.
Mass media are not parties to the war, in terms of their impact on determining the winner in the conflict. Field and analytical journalism deals with facts and current events and the journalists cannot change them, nor predict the future.
Russian military invasion of Ukraine is still ongoing and the outcome is uncertain. Hence, the claim in the post we are fact-checking that ”mass media finally admit: Ukraine is over” is not true. As specified by the Atlantic Council in an article dated 16 October, the fighting in Ukraine is far from over and the war will, most probably, continue in 2024. The development of the battlefield in Ukraine in 2024 is expected to depend on numerous factors, including geopolitical, electoral cycles, arms supply and access to ammunition.
Another key factor that will determine the course of the war in 2024 will be Russia’s political priorities. The Kremlin may choose to remain on the defensive and focus on retaining currently occupied territories. Alternatively, Putin could order his commanders to resume large-scale offensive operations to complete the occupation of the four Ukrainian provinces which were officially “annexed” by Russia in September 2022, reports the Atlantic Council.
Despite the efforts of the post we are fact-checking to present Ukraine as a loser, that is not the actual reality since the military actions have no end. On 5 November, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an exclusive interview for NBC stated that the war was at a stalemate position.
They thought they would checkmate us, but this didn’t happen, said Zelenskyy rebuffing recent suggestions from U.S. military officials that the war had entered an impasse after 20 months of fierce fighting.
He added that the Ukrainian military was coming up with different plans, with different operations in order to move forward faster and to strike the Russian Federation unexpectedly.
8 November, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine can still deliver results on the battlefield. According to his response to Reuters, Ukraine will try to produce results on the battlefield until the end of the year and Zelenskyy remains certain that Kyiv will eventually be successful in the war regardless of the difficulties on the front.
We have a plan. We have very concrete cities, very (concrete) directions where to go. I can’t share all the details, but we have some slow steps forward on the South, also we have steps on the East and some, I think good steps… near Kherson region. I am sure we’ll have success. It’s difficult, he said.
Opposed to the statement claimed in the post that losing lives in Ukraine is due to corrupt politicians and career journalists, journalists do not make decisions about military invasions anywhere – they only report on situations already established on the field. Journalists do not create wars, they only report on them. The Western countries that supported Ukraine in its right to self-defense using different forms of assistance, are also not to blame for the people killed in Ukraine.
If Ukraine does not defend itself, then it will be conquered in terms of territory, i.e., occupied, which is something that Ukraine refuses to accept. In addition, as stressed several times in the course of the military invasion, Russia in case of victory of Ukraine would not contain itself to Ukraine only, but the threat of military actions spilling over in other European countries is real, thereby threatening NATO and the EU. Hence, NATO strengthened its defence posture on the borders thereby sending a clear message that it will defend its member states and that it is prepared to do so without requesting or provoking an offensive conflict.
The rest of the post regarding the end of Zelenskyy is a prediction and cannot be subjected to a factual check. Truthmeter did not find articles by relevant mass media reporting that “Ukraine is over”, as falsely claimed in the post we are fact-checking, nor did we find any “recognition of such a thing by mass media”. As previously mentioned, mass media will report when the war will end, but they do not create the war; they just report on it.
Due to all of the above-noted facts, the post we are fact-checking is assessed as untrue.
