In our September 29 issue, when we commented in this space about Ukraine being on the front pages of our newspapers, little did we know that the situation would evolve as it has. Back then, we worried that Ukraine had become a political football in the U.S. as the 2020 presidential election draws nearer. Now, as the impeachment inquiry – looking into whether President Donald Trump used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine into discrediting a political rival – has progressed, we see Ukraine not only being depicted as hopelessly corrupt, despite all the evidence that major progress has been made on battling corruption, but also being falsely accused of having intervened in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Readers should be aware that such accusations are part of a long-running and relentless disinformation campaign directed against Ukraine by Russia. Certainly, such disinformation should come as no surprise to Ukrainians who are well-aware of Russia’s and the Soviet Union’s decades-long disinformation campaign about Ukraine, Ukrainian leaders and the Ukrainian people.
Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee on November 21, Dr. Fiona Hill, formerly the top Russia specialist on the National Security Council, spoke about the attempt to blame Ukraine for election interference. “Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did,” Dr. Hill said. “This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves.” Dr. Hill emphasized: “In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,” she told the committee. “These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes,” she added.
And still, the very next day (November 22), President Trump repeated those spurious claims on the air with Fox News. He continued to insist that Ukraine is connected to the 2016 hacking of the Democratic National Committee and that a Ukrainian company is in possession of the hacked server belonging to the DNC – a conspiracy theory debunked by Mr. Trump’s own national security advisors. Furthermore, U.S, intelligence officials who recently briefed senators and their aides, said that, for years, Russia had engaged in a disinformation campaign whose aim was to frame Ukraine for meddling in the 2016 election.
The Washington Post reported: “The revelations demonstrate Russia’s persistence in trying to sow discord among its adversaries — and show that the Kremlin apparently succeeded, as unfounded claims about Ukrainian interference seeped into Republican talking points. … The accusations of a Ukrainian influence campaign center on actions by a handful of Ukrainians who openly criticized or sought to damage Mr. Trump’s candidacy in 2016. They were scattershot efforts that were far from a replica of Moscow’s interference, when President Vladimir V. Putin ordered military and intelligence operatives to mount a broad campaign to sabotage the American election. … Starting at least in 2017, the [Russian intelligence] operatives peddled a mixture of now-debunked conspiracy theories along with established facts to leave an impression that the government in Kyiv, not Moscow, was responsible for the hackings of Democrats and its other interference efforts in 2016.” To that we must add that Mr. Putin himself on several occasions dating as far back as early 2017 tried to pin the blame on Ukraine.
Some supporters of Mr. Trump in Congress continue to promote an “alternative narrative,” to use Dr. Hill’s words, and to insist that Ukraine was involved. Lately, some of them have apparently opted to take a middle-of-the-road position by saying, essentially: yes, Russia was involved in the hacking, but so was Ukraine. Readers may recall that Mr. Trump had insisted back in May that Ukrainian leaders had colluded with the Democrats to meddle in the 2016 election. “They tried to take me down,” he was quoted by many news media as saying. “They are horrible, corrupt people.” There is much speculation about why the president and his supporters peddle this conspiracy theory, but Fox News contributor Ken Starr said it has become clear that the president just doesn’t like Ukraine. Many will protest, arguing that, after all, it is the Trump administration that came through with the much-vaunted Javelins for Ukraine. But such support, both material and moral, from the U.S. administration could now hang in the balance.
What’s truly worrisome about the current situation in our country is that facts have become malleable; indeed, they are no longer facts, but merely opinions of one side or another. Moreover, facts can easily be labelled as “fake news,” while falsehoods, repeated often enough, come to be believed. Discussions, once civil, are now toxic. Our sincere hope is that the truth will emerge to overcome the lies and disinformation that have become rampant here in the U.S. and beyond.