Russia is actively breaking the International law and International conventions, that should be the basic context related to the unjustified and unprovoked Russian aggression on Ukraine
On 28 June an article with a headline “Chinese media: NATO can’t prevent Russia from achieving its goals in Ukraine” reached the Macedonian online space. The article is overtaken from the Global times outlet founded and controlled by the Chinese Communist party as part of the media group “People’s daily online”. Global times, almost on regular basis, produces and publishes content with anti-Western and anti-US sentiment, targeting issues from global security to global economy, through the nationalistic prism of the Chinese Communist party. Almost its entire publishing aims at promoting the party positions through utilization of suspicious sources, half-truths, and distortion of facts, therefore, it should not be considered as objective and credible source of information.
The analyzed article contains several false claims because of half-truths and distortion of facts and is almost in complete line with the Strategic narratives of Kremlin.
The article’s first distortion is the claim that “NATO is divided” pointing to an alleged lack of consensus among the NATO allies. This claim is completely false, in particular when considering the latest NATO Summit in Madrid, 28-30 June 2022, where Ukraine was at the top of the agenda. At the Summit, the allies once more confirmed and reiterated the unconditional support to Ukraine that can be best pictured through the decision from Article 8 of the “Joint statement of Heads of States and Governments” of the member states. The Article 8 states: “We will continue and further step up political and practical support to our close partner Ukraine as it continues to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against Russian aggression. Jointly with Ukraine, we have decided on a strengthened package of support. This will accelerate the delivery of non-lethal defence equipment, improve Ukraine’s cyber defences and resilience, and support modernising its defence sector in its transition to strengthen long-term interoperability. In the longer term, we will assist Ukraine, and support efforts on its path of post-war reconstruction and reforms.”
In addition, just days before the NATO Summit in Madrid, on 23-24 June 2022, the European Council held its Summit in Brussels, whereas in its conclusions the Council granted the EU Candidate state status to Ukraine and Moldova. This is another argument for the commitment and unity of the Western partners in their support to Ukraine and the remaining countries in the region.
The article further promotes the Kremlin disinformation narratives that aim at depicting Russia as a constructive side since October 2021. While referring to the indecent proposal made by Russia to NATO in December 2021, the article makes an effort to present the Kremlin narrative that that Russia made all the efforts to resolve the issue in a peaceful manner. This narrative is still promoted and amplified by the Kremlin and its proxies in the effort to justify the unprovoked and unjustified Russian aggression on Ukraine.
The article further strengthens the Russian disinformation narrative on “Denazification” and “Demilitarization” of Ukraine. This narrative besides the enormous effort of Kremlin and its proxies to serve as “Casius belli” ended with a failure.
The past period was marked by articles and text that originate from pro-Russian and uncredible sources that use half-truths, distortion of facts and false claims without presenting the current context and that is that Russia cannot be considered as an equal interlocutor in the international communication since it has broken the International law and the various International conventions that are obligation of Russia and of all the other countries that signed and ratified those acts.
The breaches of the International law and conventions under the auspices of false “constructivism” cannot be overlooked and tacitly “understood” when presenting the current context of the Russian aggression on Ukraine.
This content was shared and amplified in the Macedonian online space by portals and their Facebook infrastructure that are with anti-Western orientation thus regularly publishing content that promotes the Russian strategic disinformation narratives. A total of 6 articles were published by 6 portals amplified through 18 posts on 18 FB pages / groups with a total of 1,154,000 followers with more than 1,400 interactions.
