Russian state media begins propaganda push amid fears Ukraine invasion is imminent

View
comments

Russian state TV has begun a propaganda push, claiming Ukrainian nationalists are about to massacre Russians in the country’s east in what observers fear may be the final step in justifying an invasion.  

Dmitry Kiselyov, a prominent state propagandist often known as ‘Putin’s mouthpiece’, used his Sunday news show to peddle unsubstantiated claims that Ukraine has ‘tortured and savagely killed’ thousands of civilians in the Donbass region. 

In a segment entitled ‘they are preparing to kill’, he also featured an interview with a separatist fighter in the region warning that Ukrainian nationalists have threatened to ‘kill and butcher you all, and hang your children on wires’.

The tactic mirrors Russian propaganda spread ahead of the last invasion of Ukraine, in 2014, which was used by the Kremlin to justify military action on the basis of ‘protecting’ ethnic Russians living in the country.

There are now thought to be 148,000 Russian troops massed on the borders – backed by thousands of tanks and artillery pieces – with Washington warning an invasion may come as soon as Wednesday. 

Russia has latched on to those warnings to accuse the US and ally Britain of issuing their own propaganda aimed at ‘illegally inciting war in Ukraine’. 

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Monday: ‘What we are currently witnessing is pure war propaganda.

‘Aggressive rhetoric is providing cover for arms deliveries to Ukraine, the deployment of military instructors there, the holding of Nato military exercises near Russia’s borders, and the creation by Western states of offensive combined-arms infrastructure.’

She claimed: ‘What the US and Britain are now doing is classical war propaganda.’

Such activities were banned by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1966, she said.

The Covenant was passed at the height of the Cold War with the aim ‘not only of protecting human rights, but of leading humanity away from the abyss towards which the military rhetoric of Nato countries had pushed it in those years’, she said.

‘The Soviet Union (and later Russia) and dozens of other states across the whole world, understanding the extreme danger which war propaganda may constitute, voluntarily reject this threatening practice.

‘But neither Washington nor London deprives itself of the opportunity to hold a match to a haystack…

‘The US and UK have taken from their back pockets a tool which they’ve been keeping safe for a good half-century.

‘And now they are waving it around like a truncheon, sustaining this managed hysteria through the CNN and Bloomberg media holdings and the British tabloids, influencing public opinion in their countries.’

Russia has consistently denied having any plans to attack, but continues to move additional hardware into border zones and has kept up with sabre-rattling miliary drills that appear aimed at intimidating its neighbour. 

On Sunday, images revealed that Putin has moved attack helicopters to the border – a significant step as aerial power was one of the last capabilities his forces were lacking in the event an invasion does go ahead.

The Russian military also released new images and videos of tank drills taking place in the Leningrad region, near the Baltic Sea.  

Military equipment was also captured on the move in Kursk, Belgorod, and Voronezh regions as well as in Liptsek and Saratov in social media posts.

Russian and Belarusian Su-30SMs also staged joint patrols over Belarus. 

A fresh round of diplomatic talks between European leaders aimed at heading off an attack are also taking place this week, though there appears little room for progress. 

Putin is continuing to demand that Ukraine be banned from ever joining NATO and that it withdraw forces from ex-Soviet states – something the alliance has categorically ruled out.

America and NATO have instead outlined a number of other areas – including arms control treaties – where they are willing to negotiate, though these were dismissed by the Kremlin as secondary concerns.

Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, had suggested early Monday that the country could be ‘flexible’ over its goal of joining NATO if it meant avoiding a bloody conflict.

But his remark was quickly shot down by Sergii Nykyforov – spokesman for President Volodymyr Zelensky – who said joining the alliance remains the government’s ‘absolute priority’. 

Ambassador to Britain Vadym Prystaiko was quoted by the BBC as saying Ukraine was willing to be ‘flexible’ over its goal to join the Atlantic military alliance, a move Russian President Vladimir Putin has said would be a trigger for war.

‘This course is not only reflected in the Constitution, but is also the full consent of the authorities and society,’ Mr Nykyforov told Reuters.

‘Mr. Ambassador used the word ‘flexibility’. I think it’s worth giving him the opportunity to explain what exactly he had in mind’.

Boris Johnson is preparing for a whistlestop tour of Europe this week as he leads efforts to avert a conflict and to reassure other western allies in eastern Europe that they will not be at risk if Putin attacks.

While the Prime Minister’s itinerary has not been made clear, it is thought he will head to Nordic and Baltic countries.

Though the Baltics are located hundreds of miles from Ukraine, the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have long feared that Putin may also attack them in an effort to bring them back under his control.

Any invasion of Ukraine would heighten those fears further, and almost certainly lead to calls for NATO to send more military hardware to the region.

All three nations are members of the alliance and as-such are protected by the mutual defence pledge which states that an attack on any one member will be considered an attack on all. 

Meanwhile the Russian media has continued its onslaught on Foreign Secretary Liz Truss after her visit to Moscow last week.

She was ‘poorly educated and ignorant’, ‘unable to hold a conversation’ and ‘harps on about the same thing like a parrot’, local news stations said.

Reports in Ukraine say multiple tycoons have fled the country by private jet after heeding Western warnings that an invasion is imminent.