Thread by @marydejevsky

Over recent weeks of #UkraineCrisis, i’ve heard so many whoppers & misreadings from Western side, I’m tweeting 5 of the biggest falsehoods and 5 of the most damaging misreads. here are the falsehoods:

falsehood 1. ‘#Russia has hundreds of thousands of troops on the Ukrainian border’ - UK Foreign Secretary, @Trussliz, #BBC #r4today 26/01/22
The highest figure cited at that stage was 125,000 & even that was contested.

falsehood 2. ‘Invading Ukraine is something he /#Putin/ has been wanting to do for some time’ - @TomTugendhat, @CommonsForeign, interview on @SkyNews
No evidence for this whatever

falsehood 3. ‘Russia took the Donbass’ - retweeted by @shashj, @TheEconomist and others 22/1/22
No. If it had, there would have been no war there for past 8 years.

falsehood 4. #Russia timed 2008 #Georgia war to get cover from #Beijing Olympics i.e. parallel w/ today - @MathieuBoulegue, @ChathamHouse, @TheBFPG & others.
No, #Russia was responding; timing was Georgia's. EU report consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_dat…

falsehood 5. #Putin is a fan of #Stalin - ubiquitous. No. Putin has publicly condemned Stalin’s repressions & presided, w/ Orthodox Patriarch, at 2017 inauguration of memorial Wall of Sorrow in central Moscow, at junction of Garden Ring & (NB) Sakharov Ave.

& misreadings.
1. Putin’s essay saying #Russia, #Ukraine 'one people ('kin'?) means he wants to take Ukraine into Russia - most recently @BWallaceMP, but many others.
No. Same essay says ‘Respect’ for those choosing own path. Putin on record as recognising independent Ukraine

misread 2. ‘The collapse of the Soviet Union was the biggest catastrophe of the 20th century’ = #Putin wants to recreate Sovt Union. No: he meant domestic dislocation. also said: ‘He who does not regret passing of USSR has no heart; he who wants to restore it has no head.’

misread 3. Russia’s annexation of #Crimea 2014 fits a ‘pattern of Russian aggression’. No, it was a response to a unique set of circumstances . The overthrow of elected govt in Kyiv & fear a West-leaning Ukrainian govt would pass Russia’s lease on #Sevastopol Naval base to @NATO

misread 4. Russia is unique in seeing a buffer zone or sphere of influence as necessary for national security.
Really? What was the #Cuba missile crisis all about? Or US interventions in Central America? Or US 2020 attempt at regime-change in Venezuela?

misread 5. ‘Putin - I can take Kyiv in 2 weeks if I want’ euractiv.com/section/global… - taken as proof of Putin’s aggressive intentions after 2014 #Crimea.
Correct: ‘I could take Kyiv in 2 weeks if I wanted /i.e. but I don’t’/ = evidence for no territorial ambitions in Ukraine.