Thread by @SlavaMalamud

Here is a short thread dedicated to refuting these Kremlin-written talking points.
However, AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER!
This info is meant for Western readers who are curious about the origin of these claims and want to know the truth.
Never engage or argue with trolls!

https://twitter.com/SlavaMalamud/status/1497773561938907144

1) "This is a US proxy war against Russia"
This claim dates back to 2004, when Ukrainians rejected fraudulent election results that gave victory to a Kremlin-backed candidate. The resultant "orange revolution" concluded in a new election. Russians responded by claiming...

... the revolution was instigated, financed and entirely led by the George W. Bush administration. The same claim was made about Obama in 2014, when Ukrainians rebelled again and ousted the corrupt sitting Putin-aligned president (the same guy as in 2004).

The intent of this claim is to remove all agency for popular dissent and democratic processes from Ukrainians and to portray them as clueless puppets of the nefarious United States. Russians use the same propaganda tactics internally, portraying Ukraine as a lost little sister...

Truth: Ukrainians are not puppets. It is true US and Russia have competing rooting interests in the country, but Ukrainians make their choices of their own free will. The Kremlin-backed candidate ousted in 2004 was later elected. Then, ousted again.

Poroshenko was elected on a strict anti-Russia platform. Zelensky rose on his image as a Russian-speaking peacemaker and bridge-builder.
Ukrainians change their mind a lot. But they do it by themselves. And they have little patience with politicians who don't deliver.

In fact, what Ukrainians are actually fighting against is continuing to be Russia's "little sister." They want their own voice, their own choices, their own future.
To think that people would fight and die for anything other than this is to profoundly disrespect them.

2) "Libya, Syria, Yugoslavia, Iraq..."
The quickest way to spot a Kremlin troll is by their rattling off this list of America's "war crimes" in a classic example of the time-hallowed Soviet propaganda tactic of whataboutism.

Choices made by various US presidential administrations are certainly a subject worthy of discussion, whether it's the attempt to stop ethnic cleansing in ex-Yugoslavia or the fight against a brutal dictator in Syria and Lybia or the terribly conceived regime change in Iraq...

Once can easily argue that in some or all of these US made errors or was entirely wrong. But none of it in any way excuses an invasion of a sovereign nation in order to annex and subjugate it, to deny it its own self-determination and prevent it from joining the democratic world

3) "Azov battalion"
Russians legitimize their war of conquest by claiming that Ukraine's government a fascist/neo-Nazi junta. These claims are backed up entirely by the existence of the Azov battalion, the military wing of a far-right political movement in Ukraine...

Ukraine does have far-right organizations, which include people with fascist or neo-Nazi beliefs. The same can be said of any nation in Europe, including Russia. During the 14 revolution and the subsequent "hybrid warfare" waged by Russia, Ukraine used all the help it could get.

But portraying the revolution and Ukrainian government as led and dominated by these organizations is a bold-faced lie. Far-right parties' support in Ukraine is extremely low, the country's president is Jewish, it's a much more tolerant, progressive nation than Russia...

Putin's regime, with its anti-liberal ideology, its cult of military might, its revanchist sabre-rattling based int he myth of "The Great Motherland's Historic Destiny", its "Stabbed-in-the-back" historical revisionism fits the description of a fascist state to a T.

4) "Russian speakers"
Russian speakers in Eastern Ukraine and Crimea have long resented Ukraine's leaning towards Europe. Many have refused to learn the Ukrainian language, often sharing colonial attitudes toward it and the Ukrainian culture...

And it is true that many would love to live in Russia under Putin's regime, mostly because of these attitudes.
However, despite Ukraine's attempts to assert its language as the official one nationwide, Russian speakers have never been persecuted or discriminated against...

Zelensky himself is a Russian speaker. Prior to his campaign, his Ukrainian was very poor, almost comically so. He still speaks it haltingly, with a strong Russian accent. Ukrainians often joke that Russian speakers in Ukraine have more rights than in Russia. Which is 100% true.

5) "Ukraine has been bombing Donbas..."
The war in Donbas was started by Russia. Entirely and wholly. Russian-backed and trained agents began the separatist movement in 2014. Russian soldiers have fought and killed there. Ukrainian cities were bombed from Donbas regularly...

Ukrainians failed in their attempt to fully reclaim the region in 2014-15, though they did liberate most of the territory claimed by the separatists. Since then, Russia has been using the occupied territory to justify a future full-scale invasion.

This is a very short, very bare-bones explainer.
Once again. Don't engage. Don't argue. Don't fall for uninformed drivel about "it's not all cut and dried" and "Russia has its legitimate concerns" here.
This is a war of conquest. A battle for independence. Nothing else.
Thanks.