On Russia’s disinformation and historical falsification to justify its war of aggression against Ukraine

B100074/2025

European Parliament resolution 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 Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,

– having regard to the Charter of the United Nations,

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

– having regard to the Geneva Conventions,

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

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;

B. whereas, in fact, since 24 February 2022 the Russian Federation has been carrying out 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 with the massive use of targeted attacks against the civilian population and infrastructure;

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 it should pay reparations for the injuries and damage caused;

D. whereas the ICC has been conducting an investigation into the situation in Ukraine since 2 March 2022 and on 17 March 2023 it issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, and Maria Lvova-Belova, so-called Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for the war crime of unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children; whereas the ICC has subsequently issued several more arrest warrants against Russian military officers;

E. whereas the start of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine was preceded by several public declarations by the President of the Russian Federation seeking to justify the use of force against neighbouring Ukraine by means of distorted historical arguments;

F. whereas the Russian regime has been making widespread use of disinformation, foreign information manipulation and interference to incite the Russian population to support its illegal regime and illegal war of aggression against neighbouring Ukraine and to reduce the support among the population of foreign countries for continued international assistance and support for Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression;

1. Reiterates its condemnation, in the strongest 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;

2. Rejects the various claims made by the Russian regime as vain 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 in the UN General Assembly;

3. Condemns the use of distorted historical arguments by the Russian regime in its attempt to manipulate Russian public opinion into supporting criminal actions such as the illegal war of aggression against the neighbouring country Ukraine;

4. Welcomes Ukraine’s immediate application against Russia before the International Court of Justice on 26 February 2022 to establish that Russia had no lawful basis to take military action in Ukraine and that its allegations of genocide were unsubstantiated;

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;

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 membership of the ICC as of 1 January 2025 as an important contribution to international efforts to establish accountability for serious international crimes; calls on the EU to deploy further diplomatic efforts to encourage the ratification of the Rome Statute and all its amendments globally;

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 necessary 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;

8. Urges the EU and its Member States to further increase their efforts to counter Russian disinformation and foreign information manipulation and interference in order to protect the integrity of their democratic processes and to 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;

9. Calls on the EU to expand its sanctions against Russian media outlets conducting disinformation and information manipulation supporting and justifying Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and calls on the Member States to allocate sufficient resources to effectively address this hybrid warfare;

10. 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;

11. Believes that Russia’s attempts to misrepresent and distort the history of Ukraine may also be interpreted as attempts to undermine the collective memory and identity of Europe as a whole; therefore calls on the Member States to invest more in education on, and research into, the common history of Europe and to support projects that promote a better understanding of the impact of the division of Europe during the Cold War;

12. 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 and the President, Government and Parliament of Ukraine.