What changed

B100077/2025

P10_TA(2025)0006

European Parliament resolution on Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine

(2024/2988(RSP))

PE769.096

European Parliament resolution of 23 January 2025 on Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine (2024/2988(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on RussiaRussia’s andwar of aggression against Ukraine,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on historical remembrance,

– having regard to its declaration of 23 September 2008 on the proclamation of 23 August as European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism,

– having regard to the Charter of the United Nations,

– having regard to Resolution 1481 of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe of 26 January 2006 on the need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes,

– having regard to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC),

– having regard to Rule 136(2) of its Rulesthe ofGeneva Procedure,Conventions,

A. whereas Russia systematically uses disinformation and historical falsification to justify its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine;

– having regard to Rule 136(2) and (4) of its Rules of Procedure,

B. whereas the Kremlin manipulates historical narratives to incite imperial nostalgia, legitimise aggression and deny the sovereignty of Ukraine and other neighbouring states;

A. whereas on 24 February 2022, the Russian regime declared the start of a ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine based on false claims that it needed to protect civilians;

C. whereas the ‘Russkiy mir’, or ‘Russian world’, political doctrine, reinforced by the established structures, is used to promote the Russian world view, to expand Russia’s domination in neighbouring countries and worldwide, and to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine;

B. whereas, in fact, since 24 February 2022 the Russian Federation has been waging an unprovoked, unjustified and illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, in continuation of previous aggressions since 2014, and continues to persistently violate the principles of the UN Charter through its aggressive actions against the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine and to blatantly and grossly violate international humanitarian law, as established by the Geneva Conventions of 1949, in particular through the massive use of targeted attacks against the civilian population, residential areas and civilian infrastructure;

D. whereas, shortly after February 2022, Russian state propaganda began focusing on indoctrinating Russian schoolchildren by producing rewritten history textbooks in which the war of aggression is presented as a ‘mission to liberate Ukraine’, with no mention of atrocities committed by the Russian military; whereas, furthermore, basic military training has been reintroduced in secondary schools and teachers who oppose state propaganda and provide objective information about the war in Ukraine are subject to criminal investigation;

C. whereas the UN General Assembly, in its resolution of 2 March 2022, immediately qualified Russia’s war against Ukraine as an act of aggression in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, and, in its resolution of 14 November 2022, it recognised the need to hold the Russian Federation accountable for its war of aggression, as well as legally and financially responsible for its internationally wrongful acts, and that Russia should pay reparations for the injuries and damage caused;

E. whereas Russian state propaganda portrays the Soviet Union’s actions during World War II solely as liberation efforts, while disregarding its collaboration with Nazi Germany through the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, which enabled the division of Europe and was the last step towards the outbreak of the war, and downplaying the atrocities committed by the Soviet forces, including mass deportations, executions, mass rapes and repression in occupied territories; whereas Poland was one of the primary victims of this collaboration, suffering the Katyn massacre, the forced deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles to Siberia, crimes committed during the incursion of the Red Army into Upper Silesia in 1945, known as the Upper Silesian Tragedy, and widespread repression and terror aimed at destroying Polish identity; whereas this demonstrates that Russia is repeating history, with Ukraine now being the victim of Russian aggression;

D. whereas Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is not an isolated act but a continuation of its imperialistic policy, which has included a war against Chechnya and military aggression against Georgia in 2008, and the occupation of Crimea and the start of a war in the Donbas in 2014;

F. whereas Russia has failed to acknowledge its role in starting World War II and to assume its responsibility for atrocities committed in territories occupied by the Soviet Union; whereas, contrary to the crimes committed by the Nazi regime, the crimes committed by communist dictatorships in Europe in the 20th century have not been the subject of a full international legal and political assessment and condemnation and this has contributed to the instrumentalisation of history under Putin’s rule in Russia;

E. whereas the start of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine was preceded by several public declarations by the president of the Russian Federation seeking to justify its use of force by means of historical revisionism, false claims and illegitimate demands for the recognition of its exclusive interests in Ukraine and other neighbouring countries;

G. whereas 2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II; whereas the Russian Federation, as the state claiming to continue the international legal personality of the USSR, is attempting to monopolise the victory over Nazism and has created a cult of ‘victory’ to ideologically mobilise Russians to continue the aggressive war against Ukraine;

F. whereas the Russian regime has been making widespread use of disinformation, including based on distorted historical arguments, and foreign information manipulation and interference in an attempt to justify its crime of aggression, to incite the Russian population to support its illegal regime and illegal war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine, to interfere in the democratic processes of other countries and to reduce support among their populations for continued international assistance and support for Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression; whereas the Russian regime denies Ukraine’s distinct national identity, falsely claiming it as part of the Russian world (‘Russkiy mir’), a narrative rooted in imperialistic ideology; whereas Russia is demolishing Holodomor memorials and restoring demolished monuments to Lenin in the occupied territories of Ukraine;

H. whereas Putin’s regime manipulates history to foster loyalty among the Russian population by glorifying the Soviet Union, falsifying the history of Russia and Ukraine, and rejecting past Russian efforts to acknowledge Stalinist crimes;

G. whereas Russia has not only failed to acknowledge the unforgivable initial role of the Soviet Union in the early stages of World War II, for example through the 1939 Treaty of Non-Aggression between Nazi Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Soviet Union) and its secrets protocols, commonly referred to as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, in which both totalitarian regimes conspired to divide Europe into exclusive spheres of influence, and failed to assume its responsibility for the many atrocities and mass crimes committed in territories occupied by the Soviet Union, but the current Russian regime has also instrumentalised history and created a cult of ‘victory’ around World War II to ideologically mobilise citizens and manipulate them into supporting an illegal war of aggression;

I. whereas Russia’s celebration of Victory Day on 9 May, one day later than Western allies’ celebration of it, carries with it strong propaganda of liberation, which completely ignores the occupation of the Baltic states that lasted until the 1990s;

H. whereas Russia has developed a growing disinformation campaign of historical revisionism for the purpose of denying Ukraine its national identity, statehood and very existence, and with the aim of justifying its claims to exclusive spheres of influence, which is reminiscent of how the Soviet Union agreed with Nazi Germany to invade and occupy parts of Poland and Romania as well as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact; whereas today, Russia poses a particular threat to Poland and the Baltic States and their sovereignty through this type of historical revisionism;

J. whereas Russian state-controlled media and official rhetoric propagate false claims about the causes of the war in Ukraine, including by accusing Ukraine and its leadership of Nazism; whereas similar accusations have been made against the EU Member States that have strongly supported Ukraine, as well as accusing them of being Russophobic;

I. whereas Victory Day, celebrated annually on 9 May, has been turned by the current Russian regime into a tool of war propaganda in Russia, by exploiting the narrative of the ‘liberation of Europe from Nazism’ and thus ignoring the subsequent Soviet occupation of the Baltic States and the subjugation of central Europe; whereas this narrative of liberation from Nazism is being used today in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine;

K. whereas the Kremlin denies Ukraine’s distinct national identity, falsely claiming it as part of the ‘Russian world’ (‘Russkiy mir’), a narrative rooted in imperialistic ideology; whereas Russia is demolishing Holodomor memorials and restoring decommunised monuments to Lenin in the occupied territories of Ukraine;

J. whereas in some Member States, communist symbols, as well as the symbols of the ongoing Russian aggression, are prohibited by law; whereas since 2009, 23 August has been commemorated across the EU as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of all Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes; whereas since 2003, Parliament has held an annual commemoration for the victims of mass Soviet deportations;

L. whereas the Russian Federation has enacted legislation criminalising the truthful portrayal of Soviet and Russian crimes, targeting historians, journalists and civil society actors who challenge official narratives or investigate past and present crimes; whereas Russia obstructs historical research by denying access to Soviet archives and persecuting those who seek to reveal crimes committed by the Soviet Union or the current Russian regime; whereas throughout history, Russia has repeatedly distorted historical facts to serve its political agenda, as exemplified by its long-standing denial of responsibility for the Katyn massacre, where thousands of Polish officers, intellectuals and elites were systematically executed by the NKVD (Soviet secret police) in 1940 – a crime falsely attributed to Germany for decades by Soviet propaganda; whereas the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Memorial, is among the targeted and dissolved organisations that examined, documented and exposed Soviet crimes and human rights violations in Russia;

1. Reiterates its condemnation, in the strongest possible terms, of Russia’s unprovoked, illegal and unjustified war of aggression against Ukraine; calls on Russia to immediately terminate all military activities in Ukraine and to completely and unconditionally withdraw all forces, proxies and military equipment from the entire internationally recognised territory of Ukraine, to end its forced deportations of Ukrainian civilians and to release all detained and deported Ukrainians, particularly children;

M. whereas Russian disinformation campaigns actively seek to exploit divisions within European societies by spreading false historical narratives, particularly regarding NATO’s role and the accession of new members, the US, EU enlargement and Western support for Ukraine;

2. Rejects the various claims made by the Russian regime as futile attempts to justify an illegal war of aggression that constitutes a blatant violation of the UN Charter and of the responsibility of the Russian Federation as a permanent member of the UN Security Council to maintain peace and stability and that was immediately recognised as such by the other permanent members of the UN Security Council, along with an overwhelming majority of the UN General Assembly; recalls that no consideration of whatever nature, whether political, economic, military, historic or otherwise, may serve as a justification for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine;

N. whereas disinformation and historical falsifications are integral to Russia’s hybrid warfare strategy aimed at undermining European unity and democracy; whereas the distortion of history and disinformation campaigns pose a threat to historical truth, democratic values and peace in Europe;

3. Condemns the Russian regime’s systematic falsification and use of distorted historical arguments, such as those related to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in its attempt to manipulate Russian public opinion into supporting criminal actions such as the illegal war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine, to undermine international support and assistance for Ukraine and to erase Ukraine’s distinct cultural and historical identity; denounces Russia’s claim that it is entitled to zones of exclusive interest at the expense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states as incompatible with international law;

O. whereas Russia continues to claim an exclusive sphere of influence over neighbouring states; whereas Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was preceded by demands for the US and NATO to recognise its exclusive interests in Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia;

4. Condemns the Russian Federation’s failure to establish accountability for Soviet crimes and its deliberate obstruction of historical research by denying access to and closing Soviet archives, as well as the fact that it has enacted legislation criminalising the truthful portrayal of Soviet and Russian crimes and persecuted civil society organisations investigating Soviet crimes, and has glorified Stalinist totalitarianism and re-created its methods; maintains that impunity and the lack of factually accurate historical and public debate and education has contributed to the current Russian regime’s ability to revive imperialist policies and instrumentalise history for its criminal purposes; condemns the persecution of civil society organisations investigating Soviet crimes or the crimes of the current regime, including the liquidation of International Memorial, the Memorial Human Rights Defence Centre, and the Moscow Helsinki Group, as well as the forced closure of the Sakharov Centre;

P. whereas Russia has on several occasions threatened EU and NATO countries with military and nuclear aggression, particularly the territorial integrity of the Baltic states, carried out attacks on individuals on EU soil and launched hybrid operations targeting EU Member States and democratic institutions;

5. Recalls that the deliberate attacks of the Russian Federation on the civilian population of Ukraine, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, the use of torture, sexual violence and rape as weapons of war, the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian citizens to the territory of the Russian Federation, the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children, and other serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights constitute war crimes for which all perpetrators must be held accountable;

Q. whereas in some Member States, communist and Nazi ideologies and symbols, as well as the symbols of Russia’s ongoing aggression, are prohibited by law;

6. Reiterates, therefore, its full support for the ongoing investigation by the Prosecutor of the ICC into the situation in Ukraine based on alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide; welcomes Ukraine’s formal accession to the ICC as of 1 January 2025 as an important contribution to international efforts to establish accountability for serious international crimes; calls for the EU to make further diplomatic efforts to encourage the ratification of the Rome Statute and all its amendments globally;

1. Reiterates its condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, its occupation and attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory, the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during this aggression and the Kremlin’s policy of denial of Ukrainian national identity, including forced passportisation in occupied territories and the abduction of Ukrainian children in order to erase their family history and cultural identity;

7. Furthermore also reiterates its call for the establishment of a special tribunal to investigate and prosecute the crime of aggression committed by the leadership of the Russian Federation against Ukraine; reiterates its call on the Commission, the Council and the European External Action Service to provide all political, financial and practical support necessary for the establishment of a special tribunal; expresses its full support for the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression in Ukraine, based in The Hague and supporting the ongoing efforts of the Joint Investigation Team, as a first concrete step towards the establishment of the special tribunal;

2. Denounces Russia’s systematic falsification and distortion of history to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine, promote imperial nostalgia among the Russian population and secure support for its actions internationally, and destabilise the EU; highlights the Kremlin’s efforts to erase Ukraine’s cultural and historical identity, including the destruction of monuments, archives and religious sites in occupied territories, and stresses the importance of documenting these acts;

8. Calls strongly for the EU and its Member States to further increase and coordinate their efforts, including with like-minded partners, to promptly and rigorously counter Russian disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference in order to protect the integrity of their democratic processes and strengthen the resilience of European societies, inter alia by actively promoting media literacy and by supporting quality media and professional journalism, in particular investigative journalism that uncovers Russian propaganda, its methods and networks, and by supporting research into new hybrid influence technologies;

3. Condemns the Kremlin’s nationalist ideology and policies, which foreground Russia’s military aggression, promote imperial nostalgia and threaten European security; stresses their incompatibility with international law and firmly rejects the practices of and claims to establishing zones of exclusive interest at the expense of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states;

9. Calls for the EU to expand its sanctions against Russian media outlets conducting disinformation and information manipulation campaigns supporting and justifying Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and calls on the Member States to swiftly and thoroughly implement these sanctions and to dedicate sufficient resources to effectively addressing this hybrid warfare; calls for the EU and the Member States to step up their support for the independent Russian media in exile in order to enable diverse voices in the Russian-language media;

4. Denounces the Putin regime’s glorification of Stalinist totalitarianism and the falsification of historical events, including attempts to justify the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and refusal to acknowledge the Soviet Union’s responsibility for the outbreak of World War II and for Soviet-era crimes such as the Holodomor, the Great Terror and mass deportations;

10. Expresses deep concern about the recent announcements from social media companies’ leadership concerning relaxing their rules on fact-checking and moderation and how this will further enable Russia’s disinformation campaign around the world; calls on the Commission and the Member States to strictly enforce the Digital Services Act in response to these announcements by Meta and earlier by X, including as an important part of the fight against Russian disinformation;

5. Condemns the suppression of independent historical research and the denial of access for EU citizens to the gravesites of forcibly deported relatives and to Soviet archives; condemns further the persecution of civil society organisations investigating Soviet crimes or the crimes of the current regime, including the liquidation of the International Memorial, the Memorial Human Rights Centre and the Moscow Helsinki Group, as well as forcing the Sakharov Center to cease its work;

11. Calls on EU citizens to critically evaluate information by questioning its origins and intentions, particularly when it pertains to narratives linked to Russia, and to crosscheck facts using diverse and reliable sources to resist attempts at manipulation by foreign malign actors;

6. Condemns Russia’s use of disinformation, propaganda and hybrid influence technologies to destabilise the EU and justify its aggression against Ukraine and neighbouring states; condemns Russia’s attempts to use disinformation to undermine support for Ukraine and weaken international solidarity against its aggression;

12. Condemns Moscow’s exploitation of Orthodox religion for geopolitical purposes, notably through the instrumentalisation of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) as a tool to influence and exert control over Orthodox populations in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia and other countries;

7. Categorically rejects, in particular, Putin’s false claim that Ukraine committed ‘genocide’ against the Russian-speaking population of the Donbas region, resulting in over 14 000 civilian casualties, which is used to justify Russia’s open military aggression against Ukraine;

13. Responds to the statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of 2 May 2023 on the ideology of ‘Ruscism’ by condemning the nationalist imperialist ideology, policy and practices of the current Russian regime; stresses the incompatibility of this ideology and policy and these practices with international law and European values;

8. Categorically rejects the Kremlin’s false narrative equating Ukraine’s democratic government with Nazism, which aims to delegitimise Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence;

14. Believes that Russia’s attempts to misrepresent, revise and distort the history of Ukraine undermine the collective memory and identity of Europe as a whole and represent a threat to historical truth, democratic values and peace in Europe; calls on the Member States, therefore, to invest more in education on and research into the common history of Europe and European remembrance, and to support projects that promote a better understanding of the impact of the division of Europe during the Cold War; expresses its support for the building of a pan-European memorial in Brussels for the victims of the 20th century totalitarian regimes; regrets the continued use of symbols of totalitarian regimes in public spaces and calls for an EU-wide ban on the use of both Nazi and Soviet communist symbols as well as symbols of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine;

9. Calls for enhanced coordination among the EU institutions, the Member States and international partners to counter Russia’s disinformation campaigns and prevent the spread of false historical narratives; calls for the EU to intensify research on hybrid influence technologies used by Russia and urges the EU institutions and Member States to oppose the spread of Russian-style foreign agent legislation in Europe, which is being used to crack down on media, academics and civil society essential for exposing Kremlin disinformation;

15. Expresses its wish for the EU and its Member States to promote better knowledge and understanding of the human suffering of Europeans inflicted by the Soviet regime during the 20th century; in this respect, calls for remembrance and respect for the victims of Soviet crimes, such as the mass deportations, including of the Crimean Tatar people and from the Baltic countries, the Gulag system, the Holodomor, massacres such as the Katyn massacre, and the Upper Silesian tragedy;

10. Urges the EU to promptly and rigorously apply existing legislative tools when cases of disinformation are suspected or confirmed, particularly when the integrity of elections is at risk of being influenced; calls on the Commission to include in its annual rule of law report a specific subsection on the protective measures implemented against disinformation, especially on online platforms;

16. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the President, Government and Parliament of Ukraine, and the Russian institutions.

11. Calls for the EU and its Member States to support initiatives exposing and countering Russia’s historical falsifications through EU-funded research projects and cross-border educational programmes; calls for support for Russian civil society organisations such as Memorial and Radio Sakharov so that they can continue their important work in this regard; underlines that confronting historical falsifications is essential to preserving European unity, defending democracy, the rule of law and ensuring lasting peace in Europe;

12. Calls for an effective education and information campaign rejecting the celebration of 9 May as a day of liberation and victory, and calls on the leadership of the Member States to refuse any participation in such celebrations;

13. Reiterates the importance of integrating education on the crimes of Nazi and communist regimes into school curricula across all EU Member States; encourages the Member States to integrate media literacy and critical thinking skills into education curricula in order to counter disinformation and promote democratic resilience;

14. Calls for the establishment of a special international tribunal to prosecute the crime of aggression against Ukraine and supports the International Criminal Court’s efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity; regrets instances of non-cooperation with the International Criminal Court in executing arrest warrants;

15. Regrets the continued use of symbols of totalitarian regimes in public spaces and calls for an EU-wide ban on both Nazi and Soviet communist symbols, and symbols of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine; expresses its support for building a pan-European memorial for the victims of 20th century totalitarian regimes in Brussels;

16. Commends legislative, civil society and academic efforts to raise awareness of totalitarian crimes, especially those committed by Nazi and communist regimes, as well as Russian-made symbols, particularly in relation to its aggression against Ukraine, and its national symbols at public events; encourages further research into Eastern European and Russian history and culture;

17. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Vice-President of the Commission / High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the relevant EU institutions, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe and the Russian authorities.