The russian propaganda and disinformation affect directly the scales and atrocity of the international crimes committed in Ukraine. This is the statement by Olha SKRYPNYK, the Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group, at the Helsinki 50+ Сonference side-event “Crimea: 11 years of occupation – restoring justice, reinforcing OSCE commitments”.
The participants of the event urge the russian occupation of Crimea is a flagrant violation of the principles of the Helsinki Final Act which undermines not only the sovereignty of Ukraine, but the fundamentals of the European security. The illegitimate apprehensions, the ban of the Ukrainian language, the militarization of the education and the destruction of the Ukrainian identity threat the stability of the whole region. The world shall clearly understand: the occupation of Crimea is a challenge to the security of all Europe. We urge the international community to ramp up the pressure on russia. The aggressor shall be forced to peace through the strength and the unity.
Olha SKRYPNYK states that since the beginning of the occupation the Crimean Human Rights Group has been documenting the politically motivated persecutions and other human rights violations. Since 2014 the politically motivated apprehensions of the nationals of Ukraine in Crimea went hand in hand with the disinformation and the propaganda videos which were in breach of the right for a fair trial and the presumption of innocence.
“ Since 2014 the russian media tirelessly applied the hate speech against the Crimean Tatars and the Ukrainian activists, the HRDs and the journalists. These groups have been persecuted the most in Crimea under the spurious charges. After the full-scale invasion in Ukraine in 2022 the tone of the allegations restyled to the hate speech through direct and public incitements to serious crimes. The steady marginalization, dehumanization and demonization were achieved with direct, indirect and manipulative hate speech. It is essential to observe that since 2014 and up until the full-scale invasion the indirect and manipulative hate speech governed among the russian media, intended to construct a deception of adherence to the journalist standards”, – Olha SKRYPNYK maintained.
According to Olha SKRYPNYK, after full-scale invasion the russian journalists completely abandoned imitating the journalist standards. The hate speech and the direct calls to destroy Ukraine and its residents for their nationality and anything related to Ukraine have been in full swing.
Olha SKRYPNYK shares the narratives by the russian propagandists inciting to destroy or persecute the Ukrainians in Crimea and in other occupied territories of Ukraine.
“In practical terms it means the persecution of such people through accusing them of extremism and terrorism. The incitements to destroy the civil infrastructure of Ukraine normalize in the russian society the idea of annihilation of the civilians of Ukraine. This is the most threatening now, when the attacks on Kyiv intensified,” – Olha SKRYPNYK stressed.
She reminds about the propaganda and incitements to wage aggressive war against Europe.
“Nowadays we see the link between the russian propaganda and disinformation and the scales and atrocity of the international crimes committed in Ukraine. On many occasions the russian propaganda was the reason behind the motivation or it increased the motivation to commit the war crimes or the crimes against humanity, especially the crimes against the civilians. Disinformation, and propaganda, in particular, which have been meticulously spread by russia, go against the principles of the Helsinki Act and its fundamental rules of the respect of the human rights, the state sovereignty and the borders as well as the amicable disputes resolution”, – Olha SKRYPNYK states.
Olha SKRYPNYK urges: regrettably, the methods applied by russia remain effective and threaten other democratic countries. Russia has started implementing the same technologies in many other countries.
“Therefore, the inter-state cooperation between the OSCE participating states in the field of monitoring the disinformation shall be strengthened, the response mechanisms and support of the subjects which fight against the disinformation shall be elaborated and backed up; the notion “war propaganda” shall be defined and enshrined in the international instruments; the independent journalists and other free media shall be supported, especially, when they act or cover the situation in the countries where the disinformation flourishes or in any other unstable environments’, – Olha SKRYPNYK sums up.
