Propaganda post attempts to justify the Russian attack on Ukraine with a false thesis

The thesis that Russia’s bombing of several cities in Ukraine represents “the destruction of the EU’s Nazi-fascism” is propaganda and false. Since the start of the war, which Russia unprovokedly launched in 2022 by attacking sovereign and independent Ukraine, the Kremlin has sought to justify this terrible conflict through propaganda and by spreading falsehoods about Ukraine, the EU, and their alleged “Nazi-fascism

We analyze a Facebook post which says the following:

The Nazi-fascism of the EU must be destroyed.

The post shares a text in Serbian titled “(VIDEO) Russia’s biggest attack so far, what’s happening? Blood, fire and screams in Kyiv and other cities—Putin demonstrated eerie power.” The text reports that on May 25, Russia carried out a combined attack on Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, and several areas, including Zaporizhzhia, in the early morning hours. At least 12 people died in the attacks.

When the context of the shared post is seen, i.e. the fact that Russia attacked cities in a combined attack, with deadly consequences, it is clear that the post and the text “EU Nazi-fascism must be destroyed” are actually an attempt to justify the war that Russia is waging unprovoked against an independent and sovereign Ukraine—with some kind of “denazification” or as the post inaccurately claims—”EU Nazi-fascism.”

Since the start of the military invasion in 2022, Russia has been trying to justify it, that is, to list “reasons for starting the war.” One of them was the “denazification of Ukraine,” and over time the narrative against the West has expanded to include “EU Nazi-fascism.” But the EU is neither Nazi nor fascist, and the bombing of Ukrainian cities does not contribute to the destruction of Nazism, but to the killing of innocent civilians, the destruction of infrastructure, and the endangerment of the future of Ukrainian citizens.

The Kremlin is trying to justify the military invasion of Ukraine with the thesis that “there are far-right elements in Ukraine that could be described as neo-Nazi.” However, these are insignificant elements. In modern Ukraine, extreme nationalist groups have no influence over Parliament, in the last elections they received a minimal number of votes, not enough to enter the Parliament, are not in the government and cannot be a justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Such elements are also found in many European countries, and they are also present in Russia and in the Russian armed forces, such as, for example, the Rusich group led by war criminal Alexey Milchakov, who openly declares himself a Nazi in interviews. In addition, Ukraine banned the promotion of Nazism in 2015. Despite this, the EUvsDisinfo database contains almost 500 examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation claims about “Nazi/fascist Ukraine.”

The Azov brigade, which was active in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015, is often claimed to be Nazi, but the brigade today represents several military units that are part of the regular armed forces. The State Department has removed the name of the Azov brigade from the list of formations that were not allowed to receive weapons from the United States due to the comprehensive transformation of the unit.

The thesis that there is a war in Ukraine to “denazify” the country is untrue, because denazification, as “Truthmeter.mk” has already written, is a process that is temporally linked to the past. Yale University professor Jason Stanley says that denazification is the process that the Allies carried out in Germany after World War II. Starting with the Nuremberg trials, they tried and convicted a large number of Nazis, a large number of them were killed, and then they replaced the Nazi ideology in all major institutions with people who were untouched by Nazism.

 Putin is misusing the term “denazify.” Denazification refers to a particular moment in time in the post-war era and Putin’s use of the term is propaganda aimed at his fears about the current democratic government in the Ukraine. There’s a very specific historical meaning [to denazification], which is the process undergone in Germany after the Second World War, says Timothy Snyder, an expert on Ukraine and author of “The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America,” for Time Magazine.

It is not true that the bombing of Ukraine is targeting “EU Nazi-fascism”. The EU stands for the opposite of fascist regimes, which are known for their oppressive nature, including censorship, persecution of political opponents, and human rights violations. The EU celebrates cultural diversity and encourages cooperation between different peoples. It seeks to foster a sense of European identity while respecting national identities. Fascism promotes a homogeneous national identity and often engages in aggressive nationalism and xenophobia. The European Union, contrary to the tenets of fascism, is a political and economic union of 27 member states that are fundamentally democratic and adhere to the principles of liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The EU is governed by institutions that include, among others, the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the European Council. Decisions are made through democratic processes, with member states having representation and a say in policy-making.

The European Parliament is elected in democratic elections held in the member states, which in turn elects the European Commission. On the 25th of October 2018, the European Parliament announced its concern about the increasing trend of normalization of fascism, racism, and xenophobia and called on all member states of the European Union to ban neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups. This makes it clear that the European Union’s commitments are not only not fascist, but are also firmly based on anti-fascist policies, recommendations, and actions.

Due to all the above facts, we assess the post we are reviewing as untrue.

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