Kremlin launches information campaign to deter Western support for Ukraine - ISW

The Kremlin has launched a comprehensive information campaign aimed at deterring Western support for Ukraine and undermining European participation in the peace process. In particular, russia is once again promoting the narrative that European states seek to continue the war in Ukraine.

This was reported by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Analysts have noted that the Kremlin has recently intensified three rhetorical lines aimed at influencing Western decisions in favor of the Kremlin:

• accusations of European states in continuing the war in Ukraine,
• threats of nuclear weapons against Western states,
• assertions about the inevitability of russia's victory in Ukraine.

Kremlin officials, including Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and the CEO of the russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, have hinted that European powers are seeking to prolong the war in Ukraine, trying, ISW noted, to reintroduce "this old russian narrative line" into the Western information space in order to undermine US trust in European governments.

The Kremlin is reported to have frequently used Dmitriev to advocate for russia's interests in the West, particularly regarding the peace process in Ukraine and sanctions, on English-language platforms and in the media. And on August 31, the head of the Security Council of the aggressor state, russia, Dmitry Medvedev, criticized French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on his English-language X account for the participation of France and Germany in US efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Medvedev said that Merz and Macron had "forgotten the lessons" of World War II and that "everything could end up the same as in 1945 - [Macron and Merz] could also be identified by their teeth." Medvedev also mentioned American atomic bombs to threaten France and Germany for supporting Ukraine in the peace process. Medvedev also said that russia's advance was "bad news" for Macron and Merz.

"These different rhetorical lines are intended to reinforce the recently intensified efforts of the russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) to falsely portray a russian victory in Ukraine as inevitable. The MOD has attempted to use large amounts of qualitative data to make claims about russia's advance - data and claims that, in ISW's opinion, are exaggerated," the analysts concluded.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, at a meeting with ministers of EU member states, informed them about important meetings and negotiations next week, and called on them to fully mobilize diplomatically.

Meanwhile, the US envoy and counselor John Kelly said at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on August 29 that the bombing of Ukraine "calls into question the seriousness of russia's desire for peace."

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