War Speeches: russia Attempts to Discredit Ukraine to Disrupt the Supply of Western Weapons

Last week (June 6–12), russia actively tried to disrupt the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine through the spread of unfounded accusations to discredit our state in the eyes of Western partners and the whole world.

Instead, Ukraine expressed its gratitude for the weapons that were coming, but also stressed that they were not enough to defeat russia.

On the one hand, the aggressor country continues to block Ukrainian food exports, and on the other hand, it tries to shift the blame for the global food crisis to Ukraine. In particular, russia argues that this problem can be solved if our country clears its ports from mines.

However, Ukraine is convinced that under such a scenario, the rf can take the opportunity and try to seize Ukrainian southern cities. Turkey became a mediator in the search for a way out of this situation, but so far its efforts have not produced a noticeable result.

Kyiv continued to advocate for granting Ukraine the candidate status for accession to the EU. Politicians continue to insist on obtaining the candidate status, not a "candidate for candidate", a "potential candidate," or another alternative option offered in some European capitals.

On June, 8, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recommending that the European Council grant Ukraine the candidate status for EU membership. On June, 11, in Kyiv, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, held talks with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, where she noted the progress of our country but at the same time stressed that the Ukrainian government still needs to work actively on certain reforms in the future – in particular in the areas of the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

The outcomes of this meeting and whether Kyiv and Brussels managed to find a common vision in the debatable issues, define the decision that the European Commission will make next week.

"Critically little to stop russia": Ukraine calls for more weapons and russia tries to discredit Ukraine

Last week, it was announced that US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin,  is holding a face-to-face meeting of the Contact Group on Defense of Ukraine. This meeting will take place on June, 15, at NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

Defense ministers and chiefs of defense staffs of different countries of the world will meet for the third time to discuss the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in weapons and ammunition to confront the full-scale russian aggression.

In this context, Ukraine, on the one hand, expressed its gratitude to Western partners for the weapons they provide, and on the other hand, it highlighted that they are not enough to stop the russian aggression.

Thus, on June, 8, the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, noted that Ukraine is grateful to its partners for providing heavy weapons, but they are currently lacking. "Some people have the impression that everything is normal with weapons, but it is not. We are grateful for what you have provided, but it is not enough to stop russia. More heavy weapons are needed, and as soon as possible, "the Minister explained.

Also, the Ukrainian diplomat stressed: the provision of MLRS by the United Kingdom and the United States did not change the situation to the necessary extent but there are hopes for new arrivals of weapons. "This is a signal that the taboo on the supply of heavy weapons has been lifted, but the number of heavy weapons is critically small,"  he explained.

Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the President's Office, shares the same position. In an interview with the BBC radio, as reported by Ukrinform, he said that Ukraine needs from 150 to 300 MLRS units to achieve parity in confronting the rf and to be able to liberate the captured territories.

According to the politician, Western partners have fears that Ukraine may use these weapons to strike russia but Kyiv has no such plans. "It will never happen. We just want to protect our country and drive away russian troops from the border, they are very aggressive and are waging war in a cruel and barbaric way, " he explained.

In the rf, they know about these fears of Europeans, and rf launched an information campaign to discredit Ukraine and stop the supply of weapons. Olena Trehub, Secretary General of the Independent Anti-Corruption Commission (NAKO), told about it on the YouTube channel "OPORA Speaks".

"One of the goals of russia is to harm Ukraine and stop the supply of weapons from our allies. They achieve this not only by launching cruise missiles at logistic storage points, but also by conducting an information campaign, which is to create negative narratives against Ukraine,"– said the expert.

Olena Trehub highlighted three such narratives. The first is that Ukrainians do not need to be given weapons because they are corrupt and will steal everything.

The second narrative is that Ukraine can turn into Syria or Afghanistan, and the situation will get out of control. The third narrative boils down to the fact that in eastern Europe or elsewhere, terrorists can shoot down a Stinger MANPADS aircraft.

"We need to understand that these narratives are not only disseminated as opinions among experts who are not necessarily enemies of Ukraine, but also russia is working on this defamation. No need to be surprised if in the future there will be a case when the enemy might seize Western weapons in the battlefield and then use it for some provocative act and blame Ukraine for that. However, our country treats the weapons it has received responsibly, and the narratives that russia is trying to share do not have any ground behind,"the expert emphasized.

Olena Trehub's words were vividly illustrated by a russian diplomat (if you can call him that) and russia's permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, who, without any evidence, accused the Ukrainian authorities of tampering with Western weapons.

"Due to the corruption of Ukrainian officials, arms supplied from the US and the EU are sold on the Ukrainian black market. The Stingers are offered at $7,000 per unit, and the Javelins are offered at $30,000. The choice of Western small arms and ammunition is simply off the scale," Nebenzya said during a meeting of the UN Security Council.

Another example is the words of the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of russia, Maria Zakharova, who stated without evidence that international criminal groups had already developed a scheme for the removal of Western weapons from the territory of our country.

"International criminal groups have already developed schemes for the removal of weapons from Ukraine, in particular heavy weapons. Some of the weapons are already in Bosnia, Albania, and Kosovo. Let me remind you that now both the United States and NATO are showing unprecedented concern for the future of the Balkans," said the russian propaganda messenger.

Olena Trehub said that russia also threatens Western countries with an escalation of the conflict if they continue to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine. This is one of the narratives that our Western partners use to explain the impossibility of providing us with the necessary weapons. In such conditions, Ukraine needs to communicate not only with the administration, but also with the voters of the partner countries, who should be explained that in fact Ukraine did not receive enough weapons to save the lives of Ukrainian citizens.

"In addition to proving to the administrations of those countries, in particular the US administration, that we need to give weapons in larger volumes and more serious, we also find it very important to talk about these lines of reasoning to the voters of these countries. Not all voters, including those in the United States, understand that Ukraine has not really been given the weapons it needs. Administrations do their best to convince their voters that they have supplied Ukraine with all the weapons possible. Therefore, it is necessary to explain that this is not really the case and it costs Ukraine 200 lives a day, as the representative of the President's Office says today,"– Olena Trehub believes.

According to the expert, such work should be carried out not only by the President's Office, but also by Ukrainian non-governmental organizations.

At the same time, last week the Minister of Defense, Oleksii Reznikov, told about some progress in the supply of heavy weapons to Ukraine. He said that our country received Polish AHS "Krab" which became the 5th type of 155-millimeter artillery that Western partners transferred to Ukraine.

"After the M777 and FH70 guns, the Cesar and M109 guns are the 5th type of 155 mm artillery we managed to engage," the minister said.

In addition, the Minister also informed that the Ukrainian military is already learning to operate multiple-launch rocket systems (HIMARS and MLRS – ed.).

"I have had a lot of discussions with foreign counterparts to launch early team training for different types of weapons for which there are no political solutions yet. Training in some positions began as early as March. More than 1,500 of our military are currently undergoing training or will start in the near future,"the Minister wrote in his Facebook.  

Rf wants Ukraine to open its ports, supposedly to solve the food crisis and become vulnerable to hostile landing

The problems of food security, which have persisted over the past few weeks, occupy a key place in the world's discussions. The russian strategy is manifested in the fact that, on the one hand, the aggressor continues to block Ukrainian food exports, and on the other hand, it tries to shift the blame to Ukraine.

This is clearly demonstrated by the words of the head of the russian foreign ministry, sergei lavrov. During a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Çavuşoğlu in Ankara, which took place on June, 8 and focused on the possibility of creating safe corridors for the removal of grain from Ukrainian ports, the russian diplomat noted that the rf was allegedly doing everything possible to ensure that grain left Ukrainian ports but Ukraine purportedly prevented it. In particular, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasized: the rf is ready to provide a corridor for the safe passage of ships with grain from Ukrainian ports to the Bosporus strait.

"To solve this problem, it is only necessary that Ukrainians" release "ships from their ports by either demining the area or identifying safe corridors. That's all that it takes, " the russian politician said.

At the same time, Ukraine predicts: the opening of ports will lead to the fact that russia will try to seize Ukrainian cities. Therefore, Kyiv insists on the need to develop effective security guarantees for the restoration of navigation.

Also, Ukraine questions russia's ability to stick to its promises, because, for example, a few days before the full-scale offensive, russia convinced the world that it did not plan an invasion. In the end, rf was not true to their words. The same applies to russia's claims that their army will not attack civilian targets – the rf does not keep these promises, either.

"Taking into account the recent missile strike of the rf at the grain terminal in Mykolaiv, we cannot exclude russia's plans to use such a corridor to attack Odessa and south of Ukraine. That is why effective security guarantees are necessary for the restoration of navigation," the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs believes.

The diplomatic agency stressed that Ukraine has already started supplying grain to the world market by trucks, rail, and river transport, although they say that this issue can be solved comprehensively only by unblocking Ukrainian ports.

At the same time, the diplomatic authority noted that at the moment there are no agreements on this issue between Ukraine, russia and Turkey who is trying to be a mediator. This is confirmed by the russian side, including putin's press secretary, dmitry peskov. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stressed that the decision should be made with the engagement of all parties involved, and any agreements that do not take into account the interests of Ukraine will be rejected.

As for other propaganda narratives, russians promote the message that Ukraine seems to be slowing down the negotiation process and does not want to end the war. "Ukraine does not want to negotiate. They rejected it," says the chief diplomat, sergei lavrov.

However, as reported by OPORA in previous reviews, "russian-style" negotiations mean that Ukraine should abandon russian-occupied territories in order to achieve peace and end the war.

In addition, in order to clean up their reputation and discredit Ukraine, russians promote the following false information:

• the russian military do not commit violence, in particular sexual violence, against civilians;
• Ukraine shells civilian objects on the territory of the so-called "DPR"/"LPR" republics;
• residents of the occupied territories will decide their own future;
• The Armed Forces of Ukraine committed a war crime in the russian-occupied territory of Ukraine, in particular in Mariupol.

Ukraine advocates for obtaining the status of a candidate for EU membership, the European Parliament has already supported this decision

June 2022 may be an important time in the context of Ukraine's European integration aspirations.

The application for membership, which Ukraine submitted at the beginning of the full-scale war, will be discussed at the summit on June, 23–24. Earlier, by June, 17, the European Commission should approve an opinion on Ukraine's application for EU membership. It will be adopted on the basis of the analysis of the questionnaire, to which Ukraine sent responses in April and early May.

Meanwhile, on June, 8, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recommending that Ukraine be granted candidate status. Finally, on the basis of the Commission's opinion and taking into account the decision of the European MPs, the European Council may decide to grant Ukraine candidate status and start accession negotiations.

Of course, this is an optimistic option. However, other "creative" and "alternative" solutions are being discussed in European capitals – there are countries in the EU that are sceptical about Ukraine's European integration prospects. This is confirmed by Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stephanishina, who paid a working visit to Brussels on June, 9.

"In general, about seven EU countries expressed their proposals for some other format, suggesting some extra-candidacy or conditional candidacy. There were many different proposals, but in fact there are three main countries that do not want to give a green light to Ukraine today," Stephanishyna said.

Olha Stephanishyna did not mention the countries in question because it could harm the negotiations.

She stressed that any decisions, except for granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for membership, will weaken the EU itself. This position was expressed more than once by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Last week, Dmytro Kuleba, the Head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emphasized that Ukraine needs the status of a candidate for membership, and a "candidate", a "potential candidate" or another surrogate.

Probably, aware of the importance of the decision to be adopted by the EU, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Ruslan Stefanchuk, went on a Euro-advocacy tour to Germany and France to convince the political leaders of these countries to support the granting of candidate status to Ukraine. In addition, on June, 8, he attended a meeting of the European Parliament that decided to recommend to the European Council to grant Ukraine the status of a candidate for EU membership.

Another important event of the week in the context of European integration was the visit to Kyiv of the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She came to Ukraine on June, 11 and met with Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

Following the meeting, the President of the European Commission said that the negotiations she held with the President of Ukraine will allow to finalize the assessment of Ukraine's application by the end of next week. In addition, Ursula von der Leyen noted the progress of our state, but also stressed that the Ukrainian government still needs to work on certain reforms – in particular, in the areas of the rule of law and the fight against corruption.

At the same time, Volodymyr Zelenskyi expressed the hope that the EU's positive response to the Ukrainian application will determine whether the European project has a future at all.

According to OPORA, the results of these negotiations and the achievement of a common vision on certain issues will determine the decision that the European Commission will make this week. We hope that such a decision will be positive, and Ukraine will soon receive the status of a candidate for EU membership.