The Ukraine-Russia Paris Meeting Through the Russian Propaganda Lens

Zero result for Ukraine, a Donbas Srebrenica and Putin is the winner. That is a very concise roundup of Russian media responses to the Ukraine-Russia meeting brokered by France and Germany to jump start talks on the war in eastern Ukraine that took place in Paris on December 9.

Generally Russian media considered the Paris meeting as something positive for Russia, neutral or negative for the occupied Donbas and a loss for Ukraine. Continuing the classic fake that the war in the east is a civil war and a purely internal conflict, Russian media declared that Ukraine has a lot of tense homework to do.

Скриншот lenta.ru

Скриншот @Вечер с Владимиром Соловьевым

Скриншот tass.ru

While Ukraine may have made promises in Paris, it has no intention of keeping those promises and the situation is just a continuation of Poroshenko’s policies, Lenta.ru summarizes.

The alleged Russian success at the Paris meeting is that the world has finally seen that Ukraine has no intention of abiding by the Minsk accords aimed to bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict Vesti Radio Vesti claimed.

Meanwhile TASS declared that Zelensky categorically announced that he did not agree with the Minsk accords and Kyiv is not focused on ending the conflict but rather on freezing it.

Russian state television declared that keys to peace in Ukraine are in Putin’s hands while the newspaper Vzglyad baldly declared that Angela Merkel considered Putin to be the winner of the summit, and miraculously, only a Russian journalist actually heard her say this.

Russian media also droned on about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inexperience and lack of professionalism, accusing him of being beholden on the opinion of radicals and the street.

Zelensky only learned what the Minsk accords are at this summit, claimed some Russian political analyst and Ukraina.ru declared that an ass looking at its reflection in a puddle would look more optimistic than Zelensky did at the meeting’s final press conference. Others compared Zelensky to a football, that plays a passive role, conducted psychological “analyses” of his behavior at the final press conference and announced that the Ukrainian president is afraid of Putin.

Скриншот ukraina.ru

Скриншот crimea.kp.ru

Even a new boogeyman was launched by none other than Vladimir Putin – if Ukraine regains control of its eastern border with Russia, a second Srebrenica will follow.

The Russian language was not forgotten of course. Russian media relished in the fact that Zelensky often switched to Russian while in Paris and droned on that it was in fact Ukraine’s language law that launched the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

