Two Years In: Breaking Down Myths Russia Used to Justify the Invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s full-fledged invasion of Ukraine is now in two years, while the overall Kremlin-instigated conflict now reaches a ten-year standoff.

To justify a protracted invasion, which has led to hundreds of thousands of casualties, Vladimir Putin and his inner circle used dubious justifications akin to America’s Iraq debacle to keep senseless war ongoing today.

Ukraine’s “WMDs”

In the lead-up to Russia’s all-out assault on Ukraine, the Kremlin peddled the lies of king-range missiles and “bioweapons” that the latter had in its arsenal. Under the provisions of the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, along with long-range rockets and strategic bombers.

In 2023, Ukraine finally received long-range rockets such as the British Storm Shadows and French Scalp missiles. The US Army Tactical Missiles, ATACMS, and German Taurus missiles have so far been restricted, even when pressure mounts for those weapons to be sent to Ukraine.

The Kremlin, so far, has failed to produce any tangible evidence on bioweapons, and it should be noted most countries have scientific partnership programs in the biology field, which do not correlate to biological warfare.

Ukraine Being a Bastion of “Neo-Nazism”

A significant factor in Russia’s decades-long disinformation campaign to justify their preparations for an all-out assault was that Ukraine is a “Nazi state.”

Despite Kyiv’s controversial history over Stepan Bandera, who ironically was pardoned by the Soviet Union, Moscow has been unable to produce substantial evidence of neo-Nazism in the country.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces reincorporated the controversial Azov Battalion into the Azov Regiment, which is heavily vetted to root out far-right tendencies. At the same time, the Russian Federation has embraced neo-Nazism during their military invasion.

The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary organization named after notorious antisemite Richard Wagner, who was Hitler’s favorite composer, is one of Moscow’s most formidable armed groups.

For a decade, the Kremlin played cavalier and denied their ties to Wagner until Russia openly supported the organization’s offensives in Soledar and Bakhmut. Putin himself admitted to funding the far-right mercenary organization after the assassination of the group’s leadership.

Wagner’s subsidiary, the Rusich Group, are open neo Nazis and expresses goals of racial supremacy and degradation of non-Russian Slavs and ethnic minorities in the country and Ukraine. A high ranking Rusich commander who fled fighting in Ukraine is currently detained in Finland awaiting due process.

NATO in Ukraine

A significant misconception today that the Kremlin pedals is that NATO is “encroaching on the Russian borders.” Before 2014, Ukrainian opinion on the organization was low, especially as Kyiv’s ascension had already been vetoed by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008.

The alleged “promise” that NATO would stop expanding under Mikhail Gorbachev was never written on paper or officially, as the last Soviet premier stated. Akin to Central and Eastern Europe immediately applying for membership due to the Russian threat, Ukrainians likewise saw a renewed imperialistic Russia after the annexation of Crimea and War in the Donbas region, which pushed Kyiv closer to NATO.

Russian massacres in Bucha, Irpin, Izium, and Mariupol and Putin’s illegitimate annexations only continued to push Ukraine towards a path of membership as several NATO states have already ratified Kyiv’s ascension.

NATO Being a “Threat” to Russia

Putin’s continuous speeches reference how NATO is a “threat” to the Russian Federation. Despite the fear-mongering and paranoia, Putin’s actions are showing NATO was never indeed a threat at all. Russia’s self-induced paranoia about Ukraine becoming a launching pad for NATO, a defensive alliance, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of casualties and tens of thousands in equipment losses.

Sweden, especially Finland, formally applying to the alliance in Spring 2022 is a game changer. Helsinki’s direct ascension into the organization shows that Moscow was never serious about the NATO ‘threat’ to their border.

Finland shares a 1,340 km border with Russia—the largest among any NATO member. Finland is close to Saint Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, and Russia’s second most important city. In a hypothetical war, Finland’s F-35s could reach targets in Saint Petersburg within 10 minutes.

Unlike Ukraine, which relies on Western armaments to stave off the Russian army, Finland currently has Europe’s largest reserve army and artillery stockpiles.

Historically, Russia suffered catastrophic losses in both the Winter War and Continuation War with Finland, and due to the losses in Ukraine, Moscow cannot muster combat power to match Finland currently.

What makes Russia’s attitude towards NATO since 2022 even more eye-puzzling is how the Kremlin has redeployed vital forces from strategic areas to Ukraine. In an interview with the Financial Times in August 2023, Elina Valtonen, the foreign minister of Finland, stated instead of reinforcing the border, Russia instead pulled troops away from Finland.

Valtonen’s claims were further verified earlier in the summer of 2022 when the Russian military withdrew over one hundred tons of equipment and manpower from the 80th Motor Rifle Brigade and redeployed to Ukraine, where they are seen suffering heavy casualties.

Protecting Russian Speakers from “Genocide”

Russia’s top casus belli and biggest myth peddled in the past ten years was that Ukraine was committing “genocide” against Russian speakers. Since former FSB officer Igor Girkin destabilized Ukraine’s Donbas region, the lies over ethnic cleansing and genocide have been continuously peddled by the Russian elite.

In the buildup to the all-out war in 2022, the Kremlin claimed genocide was actively taking place in the Donbas region, a common lie as fighting decreased tremendously from the initial 2014 war, with minimal shelling taking place up until Putin started preparing for war in late 2021.

When Russia fully invaded Ukraine to “protect” Russian speakers, it would be their army that actively persecuted Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Russia actively forcibly conscripts Russian-speaking Ukrainians from the occupied areas, resulting in massive casualties among the Donbas militias.

Russian-speaking cities, such as Mar’inka, Bakhmut, Soledar, Severodonetsk, Vuhledar, Avdiivka, and Mariupol, have been wiped off the map, with the latter’s destruction being the most prominent case. Mariupol’s actual death toll could be as low as 25,000 to a high of 80-100,000, and the city was a focus of Russian disinformation for years about Ukraine’s “genocide.”

Today, the most devastated regions in Ukraine are full of Russian speakers, which Putin attempts to rebuild a Russian Empire off the bones of. With Russian casualties reaching world war levels and purges being made against those who criticize his policies, in truth, Putin has committed more genocide and ethnocide against Russian speakers than any country seen since WWII.

Russia’s invasion continues to spiral into unneeded perpetual war. The multiple casus belli to justify the invasion of Ukraine has fallen flat—all for one man’s ego and imperial ambitions to see himself as a reincarnated ‘Peter the Great.’