Photo: Canva Collage
This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.
A Facebook post claims that Britain is at war with Russia, and if that were true (which it is not), we certainly wouldn’t have learned about it from a Facebook user’s post, but it would have been all over media outlets around the world, especially since both Russia and Britain are nuclear powers, and the UN would have been alerted to it. No battles (land, sea or air) between British and Russian armed forces have been recorded, even though the conflict in Ukraine has lasted for 11 years (if we count the Russian invasion of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbass), or 3 years (if we only count the full-scale Russian invasion)
A post on the social network Facebook begins with a sensational headline:
BRITAIN AT WAR WITH RUSSIA!
Great Britain is not at war with Russia, and there is no such news anywhere. If it were true (and it is not), we would certainly not have learned about it from a post by an ordinary Facebook user, but all the major global media outlets would have been buzzing about it, especially since both Russia and Great Britain are nuclear powers, and the UN and its Security Council would certainly have been alerted to it. But we do not see such a thing, because the news is untrue.
The post continues to say the following:
Trump’s move to end the war in Ukraine and to make a lasting peace agreement and the announcement that there will be no more American military aid to Ukraine is excellent.
The claim that Donald Trump’s actions were supposedly excellent reflects the personal opinion of the post’s author, which we neither wish to deny nor can forbid. However, we can and do emphasize that this in no way serves as evidence that Great Britain and Russia are at war.
Furthermore, the post concludes:
It brought to the surface the unequivocal truth that Britain is the one at war with Russia in Ukraine. Until now, they have been hiding behind America, like a snake hiding its legs. Now they are on the prowl, a good target.
What is this “unequivocal truth” for which there is no evidence? The author of the post acts as if “the war of Great Britain against Russia” is a well-known and obvious fact, for which it is even shameful to seek evidence. In reality, however, no battles (land, sea or air) between British and Russian armed forces have been recorded, even though the conflict in Ukraine has lasted for 11 years (if we count the Russian invasion of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbass), or 3 years (if we count only the full-scale Russian invasion).
If there had been British involvement in the war–as the post claims–the Kremlin would have had time to gather evidence of this and present it to the UN, as well as to break off diplomatic relations with Britain and declare war on it, but the Kremlin has not done so. The post creates the impression that Britain’s involvement in the war was initially secret, but is now public (“on the prowl”), but it does not provide any arguments for this.
A common Kremlin narrative is that Russia is “fighting NATO” in Ukraine, which is unfounded and serves to justify Russia’s failures, in the sense that “it could easily deal with the Ukrainians, but unfortunately it has to fight a bunch of NATO members.” Therefore, the Kremlin has been spreading fake news such as “French troops have arrived in Slavyansk” or “an American general has been captured in Mariupol.” Claims about the involvement of Great Britain in the war are reminiscent of this fake news.
If we still consider Great Britain’s support for the Ukrainians as participation in the war, by that logic, Belarus (as a springboard for Russian aggression) and Iran (which supplies Russia with Shahed drones, ballistic missiles, etc.) are also at war against Ukraine. It is a much better-supported statement to say that North Korea is fighting for Russia than that Great Britain is fighting for Ukraine.
It is not fighting for Ukraine, what it is actually doing is providing aid to Ukraine, as well as proposals for the announced peace agreement for Ukraine. Given that Trump refuses to send peacekeepers, who would monitor the implementation of that peace agreement, Britain is proposing to send its own. However, peacekeepers are not fighters, and they have not been deployed. Russia’s stance on their deployment is negative, so it remains unclear how this situation will ultimately unfold. In any case, this is not about the British taking Russia by storm.
The post ends with the words:
Ah, Tibetan sages, it looks like your prophecy will come true, that damned island will sink first.
The “damned island” referred to here is most likely Great Britain. We neither can nor want to forbid the author of the post from having a negative opinion about that country, which is in the realm of personal opinion, but the fact that some Tibetan sages allegedly predicted the sinking of Great Britain in no way proves that it is at war with Russia.
Taking into account everything stated so far, we assess the post as untrue.
