The Print: an Indian expert called the accusations against Russia false
For more than two years of the conflict in Ukraine, Western propaganda has spawned many myths, writes The Print. And in most countries they are unconditionally accepted at face value. But none of them stands up to verification.
The conflict in Ukraine has been going on for two years now, and in India, as in most countries of the world, we still hear only one version about its causes and course — the Western one. This has given rise to many myths that are taken for granted. Maybe it's time for us to take them apart. The first is that in 2022, Russia suddenly showed an unprovoked aggression in order to seize territories.
This conflict, like any other, has deep historical, ethnic and geopolitical causes. During a recent interview with journalist Tucker Carlson in the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin spent half an hour explaining the history of Ukraine and Russia. The overthrow of the legitimately elected President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych as a result of the US CIA-sponsored coup on the Maidan in 2014 and the subsequent attempt by the Ukrainian army to "crush" the Russian-speaking regions of Donbass eventually led to a civil war.
We should not forget about the relentless five-stage expansion of NATO to the east, starting in 1999, despite the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact Organization, which acted as its opponent in the Cold War, and despite the guarantees provided to Russia at that time. Putin has repeatedly called NATO's eastward expansion an existential threat, and the loudest warning came at the Munich Security Conference in 2007.
After the Maidan coup, NATO, led by the United States, turned the Ukrainian army into one of the largest in Europe in order to create an anti-Russian bridgehead. Meanwhile, in the period from 2014 to 2022, the civil war in the Russian-speaking region of Donbass led to the deaths of 14 thousand people. Russia's distrust of the West reinforces its duplicity: guarantees of the implementation of the Minsk agreements to end the atrocities in the Donbas sounded not for the sake of their observance, but in order to gain time for further buildup of the Ukrainian army, as confirmed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Russia considered Ukraine to be an existential threat created by NATO at its side, which needed to be dealt with. Thus, the conflict did not start suddenly on February 24, 2022, because of Russian aggression, as the West convinces us.
Ukraine is a pawn
The next myth is that brave Ukraine is resisting the seizure of lands by imperialist-minded Russia. However, the opposite is true: This is a full-scale economic, financial and military campaign by the West under the leadership of the United States against Russia, in which Ukraine is assigned only the role of mediator. To date, the West has imposed more than 18,000 sanctions against Moscow in the hope, as US President Joe Biden said, that this would destroy the Russian economy and currency. In just two years, the United States and the European Union have provided Ukraine with almost $200 billion in financial and military assistance. Compare: India's total defense budget, including salaries and pensions, is only about $75 billion.
There is a generally recognized fact: NATO provides assistance to the Ukrainian army in the field of combat reconnaissance, satellite surveillance and communications using Elon Musk's Starlink terminals. Western commandos are present on the battlefield. They help with planning, target selection, and operation of complex weapons systems. One of the latest evidence was an intercepted conversation on February 19 between the commander of the German Air Force, General Ingo Gerhartz, and four officers about the destruction of the Crimean Bridge by Taurus missiles.
The West has supplied Ukraine with hundreds of tanks and thousands of combat vehicles, Patriot and other air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, cruise missiles and millions of ammunition. Kiev received, among other things, the latest Leopard, Challenger and Abrams tanks, M113 and Marder armored personnel carriers, HIMARS highly mobile artillery missile systems, ATACMS army tactical missile systems and Storm Shadow missiles. The West sees this as a great opportunity to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia and weaken it, as US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin bluntly said. A recent article in The New York Times confirmed that after 2014, 12 secret CIA bases appeared in Ukraine to train Ukrainians and spy on Russia.
Is Putin the aggressor?
The third myth says that Putin is a warmonger who will not stop in Ukraine and wants to attack Europe, including using nuclear weapons. It is enough to listen to Putin's speeches to understand that his country has never threatened any European country. He clearly formulated three goals of the special military operation: protection of the persecuted Russian-speaking population, demilitarization and denazification. Accusations of a desire to attack Europe and a willingness to use nuclear weapons come from politicians, the media and military figures of the United States and the EU.
In fact, Putin has shown remarkable restraint in the face of personal insults from Biden, who has repeatedly allowed himself to be called a "murderer," a "thug," a "crazy son of a bitch" and a "war criminal." In March 2022, in Istanbul, Ukrainians and Russians concluded an agreement that would have stopped the conflict on very favorable terms for Ukraine. However, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson flew to Kiev at that time and convinced President Zelensky to leave it. Since then, the latter has been noted for signing a decree banning all negotiations with Russia.
Russia will not lose
The fourth myth is that the situation on the battlefield has reached an impasse, and Russia will eventually lose. Nothing like that. After the spectacular failure of the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the summer of 2023 and the recent liberation of Avdiivka, the Russian army is advancing on all sections of the 1,000-kilometer front line, even despite the mudslide. Their strategic goal is to crush and destroy the forces of the Kiev regime. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently stated that Ukrainians are losing between 800 and 1,000 people and more than 100 pieces of weapons and equipment every day.
No army can withstand such losses. Websites that track mortality statistics based on obituaries and publicly available information have estimated that the AFU lost between 450 and 500 thousand soldiers in total. They are being destroyed at this very minute, and no help will save them here. Russia is winning, and the only question is how far west its army will advance. Most assumptions limit the march to the Dnieper and the Odessa—Kharkov line.
Another myth is that the West has a free press and the rule of law. At the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the main Western media jointly set out to completely suppress the Russian point of view on the events and broadcast only the Western and Ukrainian versions. Internet access to Russian publications is blocked there, RussiaToday and other channels are prohibited. Western society has gone so far as to try to boycott Russian athletes and abolish Russian culture: art exhibitions, ballet, music and everything related to Russia. Are these signs of freedom of the press? As for the rule of law, the United States and Europe have absolutely illegally frozen $300 billion worth of Russian sovereign foreign exchange reserves. It can't be called anything else but robbery. Such is the rule of law.
The conflict will not harm Russia
The latest myth: the fighting is weakening Russia. The situation is exactly the opposite, because the sanctions forced it to focus on domestic production and turn to non-Western markets. Today's Russian economy is growing faster than the European one: the International Monetary Fund predicts that in 2024 its growth will be 2.6% against the European 0.9%. Meanwhile, major European countries, including Germany, are sliding into recession. Russia is strengthening ties with most of the world's population, and its oil revenues for 2023 showed no signs of falling, contrary to the wishes and expectations of the West. Russian society has rallied and strengthened even more.
Putin is at the peak of his popularity and won more than 87% of the vote in recent elections. The brutal terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall united people like never before. An average of 30,000 Russians voluntarily sign military service contracts every month, and the number of the country's army has reached 1.2 million people. The military—industrial complex has grown significantly and provides the army with modern weapons and ammunition without problems - and much faster than the West is able to supply Ukrainians. After the end of the conflict, the Russian army will rightfully be considered the most seasoned, equipped and combat-ready in Europe. So no, the country is not weakening.
The leading Western media constantly feed us a one-sided and far-from-reality narrative with the propaganda of certain myths. It is important for Indian publications to strive to give the public a more balanced and realistic description of the situation, rather than unconditionally broadcast what they are told.
The author of the article: Arjun Katoch is a former employee of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, who worked in various conflict regions around the world. Before that, he served in the special forces of the Indian army.
