Disinformation that seeks to justify Putin regime’s war crime against Ukrainian children

The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation has published a selection of fakes and manipulations that were spread by international journalists on May 1 and contribute to Russian propaganda.

Experts noted disinformation about the motives of the Russian leadership to deport Ukrainian children, as well as manipulation about Ukraine’s dependence on the West.

Disinformation: Kim Dotcom, a German-Finnish blogger, wrote on his X page: “Netanyahu says the International Criminal Court is garbage. He is right. “They have issued an arrest warrant for Putin for moving children to a safe place away from Zelensky’s shelling in eastern Ukraine.”

Debunking: In fact, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin because Russia forcibly removed thousands of Ukrainian children from their homes under the pretext of saving them from the fighting conducted by Russian invading troops. Before the Russian military began its full-scale war aggression against Ukraine, there was no threat to the Ukrainian children.

Kim Dotcom is an entrepreneur, a blogger, and a conspiracy theorist with a 1.5M of followers on X.

Facts about the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

Representatives of various states and international organizations reacted to the Hague court’s decision. Later, representatives from the United Kingdom and Canada joined them, unambiguously supporting the court’s position. And US President Joe Biden said that the ICC’s arrest warrant for Putin was justified because the Russian president had committed war crimes.

Manipulation: In an article for the American online publication RealClearInvestigations, Canadian journalist Aaron Maté wrote:

“With billions of dollars in U.S. aid, Washington has shaped the personnel and policies of successive Ukrainian governments while expanding its military and intelligence presence in Ukraine through the CIA and NATO.” During this period, Ukraine did not become an independent, self-sufficient democracy, but rather a client state heavily dependent on European and American support that failed to protect it from the devastating effects of war.” 

Debunking: With such statements, the journalist tries to portray Ukraine as a puppet in the hands of the West that does not decide its own future. The purpose of such statements is to discredit EU and US support for Ukraine and ultimately halt aid. In fact, Ukraine needs much assistance because it is under a full-scale military attack by the Russian regime, and without aid, it would not survive.

As we previously stated, many pro-Russian news websites concentrate on disseminating narratives that accuse Kyiv of being a puppet government of the West and blame the West and NATO for the war that Putin’s regime initiated.