US State Department Publishes Bulletin on Russian Disinformation About Ukraine. In Response, Moscow Protests Ukrainian Language Expansion in Ukraine

The Kremlin is concerned that in Ukraine, the Ukrainian language is replacing Russian in various spheres.

The US State Department has released an informational bulletin on Russian disinformation against Ukraine.

The document points out that in Crimea, occupied by Russia, and in the so-called DPR and LPR, Ukrainian communities face suppression of their culture and national identity, and live under conditions of brutal repression and fear.

"Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, occupied Crimea, controls armed forces in Donbas, and has now massed more than 100,000 military personnel on the border with Ukraine, while President Putin threatens "retaliatory military-technical" measures if his demands are not met," the US State Department stressed.

Official Washington also notes that there is no credible evidence that any ethnic Russians or Russian speakers are under threat from the Ukrainian authorities.

"Russian military and intelligence services are attacking Ukraine with disinformation, trying to portray Ukraine and Ukrainian government officials as the aggressor in Russian-Ukrainian relations. The Russian government is trying to deceive the world into believing that Ukraine's behavior could provoke a global conflict, and to convince Russian citizens of the need for Russian military action in Ukraine. Russia accuses others of its own aggression," the American diplomatic agency said.

Responding to these statements, the Kremlin began claiming that the human rights situation in Crimea, including the position of national minorities, has supposedly "not just improved... but become qualitatively different."

Moreover, Putin's team does not hide that it is outraged by the support for the Ukrainian language in Ukraine and sees in this "terrible scale of violations" and "oppression" of Russian-speaking citizens.

"Violations of the rights of the multimillion-strong Russian-speaking population in Ukraine have reached horrifying proportions. The country's authorities are adopting discriminatory laws on language, education, and so-called "indigenous peoples," squeezing the Russian language out of all spheres of life," representatives of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

It should be noted that Russia's seizure of Crimea and its unleashing of war in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions took place under the slogan of "protecting" the rights of the Russian-speaking population of these regions.

The language issue itself was and remains one of the main manipulations used by Russian propaganda against Ukraine.