Russian propaganda claims that the European Union is deliberately blocking peace negotiations on Ukraine and prolonging the war. Czech expert, however, warns that this is a purposeful disinformation narrative – according to him, the real actor blocking peace is Russia.
At the beginning of December, the pro-Russian website sputnikglobe.com, published a report claiming that European leaders are intentionally blocking a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. The site alleges that leaders want to prolong the conflict so that the EU can turn into a military alliance and the European Commission into the de facto government of a European federal state. This was reported by the website euvsdisinfo.com, where the European External Action Service monitors disinformation.
According to Pavel Havlíček (TOP 09), Czech expert from the Association for International Affairs, the spread of this disinformation fits into broader geopolitical processes, with “the Kremlin playing the US and Europe off against each other in a good cop/bad cop dynamic.”
The timing supports this interpretation. The report appeared on 8 December, during the days when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was holding talks on peace negotiations with European leaders in London and with representatives of EU institutions in Brussels. The talks were framed primarily by the 28-point plan to end Russia’s war, presented by US President Donald Trump at the end of November. The plan drew a wave of criticism from Europe for being tailor-made to Russian demands. According to statements by Zelenskyy, Ukraine then adjusted the plan together with its European partners ahead of talks with the United States in Berlin on 15 December.
According to Havlíček, reality is exactly the opposite of what the Kremlin narrative claims. “Under this narrative, practically anything the EU does – sending money, material, or defending Ukraine in international peace negotiations – is portrayed as prolonging the war. In reality, it is Russia that has been acting completely unconstructively the whole time, demanding maximalist concessions from Ukraine without offering anything in return,” he explained.
According to statements by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, Europe’s goal is “a strong Ukraine both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.” European representatives also repeatedly stress that the conditions for ending the war must be decided by Ukraine itself.
It is true that, in response to the ongoing Russian aggression and the growing Russian threat, the European Union is strengthening its military defence capabilities through a range of initiatives. However, these are not directly linked to negotiations on ending the war and do not lead to transforming the EU into a military alliance. On the contrary, leaders of the EU’s 27 member states have long failed to agree on deepening the EU’s common security and foreign policy.
The lowest common denominator is precisely the agreement that EU activities do not replace NATO. Nor is there consensus on deepening European integration towards a federal model. In this case, a number of European countries, including the Czech Republic, are opposed.
In one respect, however, the “pro-Kremlin whisperers” are right, Havlíček adds. “Namely, that Europe does not want to let Ukraine fall, and on the contrary wants to provide it with assistance and support in its just fight to defend its territory and its interests, which the Kremlin is undermining through its invasion.”
A similar narrative has appeared in Czechia before. Claims that the EU is prolonging the war were made this August – in a similar context, namely ahead of the Trump – Putin talks in Alaska – for example by former Czech president Václav Klaus. He did not, however, specify the reasons. He merely labelled EU initiatives as anti-peace. “We are deeply concerned and therefore firmly reject attempts by some European powers and the European Union to paralyse this meeting between Russia and the United States, to block an end to the fighting and to prolong the war at any cost,” Klaus stated.
Portraying the EU as an actor that does not want peace is also a recurring theme on a number of Czech disinformation and conspiracy websites. They write, for example, that “the EU, Germany, France and the United Kingdom are doing everything to prevent peace,” that “Euro-enthusiast politicians support Brussels’ war-mongering,” or that “the West is escalating tensions and EU leaders are bloodthirsty beasts”. The European Commission, meanwhile, has long said that it wants a just and lasting peace.
