Austrian expert refutes Kremlin narratives ahead of summit in Alaska
As the meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin approaches, Russian propaganda is actively promoting the narrative that Ukraine and the European Union are allegedly obstructing peace, and that a U.S.-Russia agreement regarding Ukraine’s neutrality could pave the way for a peaceful resolution.
Dietmar Pichler, an Austrian expert on countering disinformation and founder of the Disinfo Resilience Network, expressed this opinion in a comment to Ukrinform.
“The main narrative that we can hear from pro-Russian sources and profiles is that there is a ‘Peace deal possible’ but Zelensky and the EU are not happy about it. In some cases, it is even implied that ‘Zelensky wants to continue the war.’ These sources, of course, do not specify what the terms for a so-called peace deal or even a ceasefire with Russia are, and that it is very unlikely that any agreement settled with Russia is sustainable, looking at Russian history,” said Pichler, responding to a question about how Russian propaganda interprets the planned Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska.
He noted that Russian state propaganda “goes even further.” For instance, the Russian MFA claimed that Ukraine is allegedly “planning a provocation to foil the Russian-American talks" —a narrative that was also echoed by the Kremlin-backed outlet RT.
“Obviously, the Russians put a lot of effort into portraying Ukraine as not peace-willing, which matches with their strategy of victim-blaming and demonization,” the expert said.
He emphasized that Russia itself is staging various provocations as part of its hybrid warfare strategy, while simultaneously shifting blame for its own war crimes onto others.
The analyst also pointed out remarks made by Norwegian political scientist Glenn Diesen, a frequent guest on RT. On the media platform X, Diesen wrote that Donald Trump had allegedly introduced new topics for European discussion—specifically, the alleged shift in NATO’s stance toward recognizing Russia’s de facto control over occupied Ukrainian territories. He further suggested that agreeing to Ukraine’s neutrality could pave the way for a peace deal.
“These statements are typical for actors like Diesen, who like to portray 'NATO Expansion' and the lack of Ukrainian neutrality as a main motive for the Russian aggression against Ukraine instead of Russian imperialism,” noted the Disinfo Resilience Network founder.
Another Kremlin narrative widely spread ahead of the summit in Alaska is the claim that "Russia already won the war" or is "advancing now quickly" on the battlefield.
“This, of course, seems not like a coincidence at the moment. Viktor Orbán, for instance, said recently that ‘Russia has won war in Ukraine.’ That is also not a surprising narrative for the Hungarian leader, well known for anti-Ukrainian statements,” he said.
At the same time, Pichler noted “one point that is also overlooked is that Russia broke all agreements, denied all war crimes since 2014 (and about other conflicts before, even longer) and showed zero interest in a compromise”.
“The propaganda machine of the Russian Federation and its ability to launch false-flag operations makes it also predictable that they will blame Ukraine for breaking the ceasefire whenever they want and use it as a pretext for a new, further invasion. In the days before the full-scale invasion, Russia staged a lot of false-flag operations, fake news, and fake ceasefire violations to create a pseudo-pretext for the full-scale invasion. Unfortunately, many of us seem to have forgotten that, if they ever knew about it,” the Austrian expert summarized.
As reported by Ukrinform, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska on August 15.
Prior to this meeting, EU leaders signed a statement in support of Ukraine (Hungary did not join). They stressed that the path to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine cannot be determined without the participation of Ukraine itself.
Ukrinform photos are available for purchase here