Photo: Wilfried Pohnke auf Pixabay

This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.

A Facebook post claims that NATO lost the war in Ukraine, but the alliance is not participating in it, and it’s unclear how Russia has won either. Russia doesn’t even have full control over the territories it illegally annexed, such as the cities of Zaporozhye and Kherson. Neither Kiev, Kharkiv, nor Zelensky have fallen, and instead of Ukraine being demilitarized, it has become more militarized. What the proposed peace plan might bring is unclear, but even if it prevents Ukraine from joining NATO, it would not be a defeat for the alliance, which has not insisted on Ukraine’s membership

A Facebook post begins in the following way:

Trump’s “peace plan” is his exit strategy and cover-up of the fact that NATO just lost the war in Ukraine (after Afghanistan).

NATO is not a belligerent in Ukraine, so it cannot lose the war. There have been no reports of fighting between Russian and American or other NATO troops on Ukrainian soil. Instead, the Kremlin has circulated fake news, such as claims that “French troops arrived in Slavyansk” or that “an American general was captured in Mariupol.” These fabricated stories are intended to justify Russia’s failures by suggesting that while it could easily defeat the Ukrainians, it is unfortunately forced to battle a coalition of NATO members.

If we consider NATO’s support for the Ukrainians to be participation in the war, then by that logic Belarus (a springboard for Russian aggression) and Iran (which supplies Russia with Shahed drones, ballistic missiles, etc.) are also fighting against Ukraine. It is much more reasonable to say that North Korean troops are fighting for Russia than to say that NATO is fighting for Ukraine.

Donald Trump wants the war to end, but not because he is losing it, but because he is lenient towards Russia, which was even accused of meddling in his 2016 election victory, and because he is more of an isolationist focused on issues other than Ukraine (particularly China).

And so, if “NATO is defeated”, how did Vladimir Putin win? He did not carry out the planned “denazification” (overthrow and lustration of the government in Kyiv, which he falsely portrayed as “Nazi”), nor the planned demilitarization (weakening of Ukrainian forces).

Putin was defeated in the battles for Kyiv and Kharkiv, Zelensky was not overthrown, and Ukraine is not demilitarized, but even more militarized and it even occupied part of the Russian Kursk Region.

Putin does not have big military successes, only ones in small places in the Donbas, such as Kurakhove, among others, so he hopes to secure victory at the negotiating table, so that through Trump, who blackmails Ukraine with military aid, he will impose on it: to give up territories, to reduce the army, to withdraw from the Kursk Region and to hold elections, hoping that Zelensky will lose them. But that is not a military victory.

At the same time as they seek peace (or armistice) with Russia, they are selling more weapons to the allies, the post says.

What is left of Ukraine has already been sold off and plundered by Western corporations, including the fertile soil, the post says.

Truthmeter.mk has already written on the topic of such disinformation. The plundering is not done by Western corporations, but by Russia through aggression, occupation and annexation. And, if by “what is left of Ukraine” the post means the part of it that is not under Russian occupation, let’s emphasize that according to UN resolutions 68/262 and ES-11/4, Ukraine is whole, and the annexation is null.

What a tragic fate for a country that suffered because it failed to realize the immense cost of NATO membership, the post says. 

Zelensky’s already been used… you know what… the post says.

Traditionally, the US (as the leader of the Alliance) would make a wreck, leaving the Europeans to clean it up, the post reads.

According to the aforementioned rumors, the reconstruction of Ukraine will be dealt with by the EU, but the “wreck” in Ukraine was not made by the United States, but by Russia. It is destroying and massacring Ukraine. The post offers no evidence or examples that Europeans would normally clean up when this happened.

But Putin was right when he said that soon all European leaders will lick Trump’s feet like poodles, the post reads.

Soon they will all stand at the master’s feet and gently wag their tail

Moreover, the post rejoices over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, but it is known as the “Graveyard of Empires” and it was also where Russia was defeated as part of the USSR (1979-1989), thus the euphoria of victory in this pro-Russian-leaning post is unfounded.

Taking all of this into account, we assess the post as untrue.