The Kremlin wants to quarrel Ukraine and the United States: ISW reveals details
22 March 06:45
The Kremlin is trying to disrupt peace talks with Ukraine and justify the need to continue the war, as well as worsen Ukraine’s relations with the United States in the field of nuclear energy. This is reported by Komersant ukrainskyi with reference to a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
It is noted that Russian officials use narratives about the fighting and strikes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the territory of Russia to justify the refusal to hold peace talks with Ukraine and the continuation of the war for the domestic audience.
As an example, the report cited the shelling of the Sudzha gas metering station in Kursk Oblast on the night of March 21. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine denied the involvement of the Ukrainian military in the attack, but the Kremlin uncompromisingly blames the incident on the Ukrainian side.
For example, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Ukraine’s denial of the station’s explosion “demonstrates how much one can believe and trust” Ukrainian officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asked how the United States would “manage” Ukraine given Kyiv’s alleged violation of the moratorium on strikes on energy infrastructure, a mechanism that has yet to be finalized and implemented.
“Peskov’s and Zakharova’s comments are an attempt to revive the narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor in this war, that it is acting only under the direction or pressure of the West, and that the war is an existential risk for Russia that Moscow must respond to,” ISW said.
Disruption of Ukraine’s cooperation with the United States
The Institute’s analysts also note that the Kremlin has revived narratives accusing the Ukrainian Armed Forces of attacking Russian nuclear power plants and committing war crimes against Russian civilians in order to undermine trust in Ukraine and reinforce a fictional existential threat to its domestic audience.
This is confirmed by the fact that on March 21, the Russian Investigative Committee released a summary of ongoing criminal investigations, cases, and sentences against Ukrainian soldiers and high-ranking commanders for allegedly attacking the Kursk nuclear power plant (NPP) and civilians.
“ISW has assessed that the Kremlin is preparing to intensify narratives accusing Ukrainian troops of war crimes in the Kursk region. This is necessary to discredit the Ukrainian military, undermine Western support for Ukraine, and disrupt or delay negotiations on proposals for a temporary ceasefire,” the report says.
The Institute noted that throughout the large-scale war, the Kremlin has consistently promoted these narratives in an attempt to divert attention from Russia’s actions.
The analysts reminded that Russian troops committed numerous war crimes on the battlefield and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, militarized and threatened to disrupt the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The report also reminded that on February 14, a Russian long-range Shahed drone damaged the shelter over the destroyed reactor No. 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Given these facts, ISW is convinced that the Kremlin may try to use its narratives that falsely portray Ukraine as recklessly endangering Russian nuclear power plants and as a dangerous operator of the ZNPP.
“This is intended to deteriorate U.S.-Ukraine bilateral negotiations, given recent official statements by Washington and Ukraine about possible U.S. involvement in Ukrainian energy infrastructure, including the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant,” the ISW report says.
