On May 30, kamikaze drones struck targets in southwest Moscow and the Moscow region more than 500 km from the frontline in Russia-Ukraine war. The drones hit areas where the Russian elite have homes, with one falling just three kilometers from the presidential residence in Novo-Ogaryovo.
Answering questions about the drone strike that same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin repeated his usual disinformation talking points about Ukraine and the West. Below are four of those falsehoods -- debunked.
Putin began by scorning Ukraine's sovereignty and the West of creating Ukrainian hostility toward Russia:
That is false.
Since Ukraine became independent in 1991, its social, political and economic elites have been into pro-Western and pro-Russian camps.
That divide manifested itself most clearly in elections for Ukraine’s president, the post with the country's foreign policy and significantly influence its domestic policy.
During its 32 years of independence, Ukraine has been led by pro-Western presidents for 14 years — (2005-2010), (2014-2019) and (since 2019).
Ukrainian presidents who balanced between the West and Russia — (1991-1994) and (1994-2005) — also governed for 14 years.
For four years, 2010-2014, Ukraine was led by pro-Russian President . In November 2013, he backed up from signing an association agreement with the European Union, leading to the in Kyiv.
Putin then that NATO had promised Russia not to expand eastwards:
That is also . No was made.
The Washington Treaty — or North Atlantic Treaty — that established NATO, was signed in 1949. It s that signatories “may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area to accede to this Treaty.”
NATO has that “.”
The U.S., Europe and Russia have any other treaty containing provisions for NATO membership.
Former Soviet President in a 2014 interview with the Russia Beyond that the West never promised the Soviet Union that NATO would not expand to the east:
“The topic of ‘NATO expansion’ was not discussed at all, and it wasn’t brought up in those years. I say this with full responsibility. Not a single Eastern European country raised the issue, not even after the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist in 1991. Western leaders didn't bring it up, either.”
In 1997, then-U.S. President to enter into a "gentlemen's agreement" with Russian President Boris Yeltsin that “no former Soviet republics would enter NATO.”
Putin also Ukraine of starting the war in Donbas in 2014:
The began in April 2014, when Russia clandestinely in response to which the Ukrainian military launched an operation against them.
In a March 2015 interview with Germany’s magazine, Igor Girkin (alias Strelkov), a Russian intelligence operative who played a key role on the Russian side in the war in Donbas, claimed to have "convinced” Putin in eastern Ukraine.
"I was the one who pulled the trigger for war,” .
In that April 2014 interview, Strelkov said he was “joined by armed irregulars from Russia, [and] marched from Crimea to the provincial city of Sloviansk” in Donbas.
"In the beginning, nobody there wanted to fight," said Strelkov, adding that his armed group attacked a police station in Slovyansk, initiating the first clashes with Ukrainian security forces.
Russia subsequently , ammunition and financing to the illegal armed formations in Donbas. On June 13, 2014, the that Russia had sent T-64 tanks, several BM-21 “Grad” multiple rocket launchers and other military vehicles” to eastern Ukraine.
Earlier this year in a January 25 ruling, the European Court of Human Rights that the parts of Donbas seized by the so-called “separatists” in the spring of 2014:
Putin that Russia only strikes military facilities in Ukraine:
That is also false.
The throughout Ukraine, including residential buildings, schools and hospitals. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian military strikes have killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians.
On February 25, 2022, a day after Russia launched its invasion, Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnes Callamard :
As of May 8, 2023, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights recorded . Of those, 8,791 of the victims were killed and 14,815 injured as a result “of the large-scale armed attack by the Russian Federation.”