Article by: Martin Fornusek

Foreign military aid to Ukraine has been a crucial asset for Kyiv’s war effort. The Kremlin is well aware of its importance and targets Ukraine’s partner countries with propaganda and disinformation campaigns.

A widely used strategy is to portray pro-Ukrainian governments as warmongers that prolong the conflict through military supplies and, given a chance, would drag their countries into a full-scale war with Russia.

The path to peace supposedly lies in some kind of compromise with Moscow or outright capitulation to Russia’s demands. Pro-Russian actors thus hijack the discourse by claiming for themselves the title of peacemakers while pushing Ukraine supporters into the rhetorical defensive.

This narrative stands on clay feet for several reasons:

• In all aspects, Russia was the aggressor. The Kremlin did not even try to construct any “Gliwice-like” incident to justify the invasion of a sovereign country.
• By supplying weapons to Ukraine, NATO countries can prevent further Russian aggression and thus keep war away from their own borders.
• If Ukraine surrenders, this will not stop the violence. The acts of the Russian military on the occupied territories, including murder, torture, and rape of civilians, have already proven that.
• According to the UN Charter, supplying weapons to a country under attack is an acceptable means of achieving peace, unlike Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which is a clear violation of the UN Charter and illegal according to international law.
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