Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Joe Biden had a meeting in Washington. The two-hour talks between the two leaders, as expected, focused on security in Donbas, the temporarily occupied Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov region, as well as energy security of Ukraine and Europe.
Following the summit, the sides issued a joint statement on the strategic partnership between Ukraine and the United States. Reiterating the issue of strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and NATO, against the background of the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, the visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to Kyiv, and the launch of the Crimea Platform, Washington and Kyiv dealt a tangible blow to the Kremlin’s ambitions. And although some experts are inclined to believe that no visible fateful achievements are being observed at the moment, the very fact of a successful meeting has greatly annoyed Ukraine’s adversaries in the international arena.
Most of the lamenting came from Moscow, which is natural.
With no powerful levers to undermine the long-standing relations between the United States and Ukraine, Russia has focused on propaganda efforts aimed to sow uncertainty about the prospects for bilateral cooperation between Kyiv and Washington. This propaganda stunt focused on the allegedly weak preparation for the overseas trip on the part of Ukraine and “the lack of fateful statements or documents” signed following the meetings.
At the same time, the Russian Federation has once again claimed the United States would leave Ukraine to its own devices, as it was with Afghanistan.
Russian propaganda platforms, including Telegram channels, are trying to form the impression among audiences that Kyiv’s relations with Washington have cooled.
To this end, the Kremlin singled out and handed all propagandists for immediate distribution the following narratives:
- The meeting took place without any breakthroughs Ukraine had hoped for amid the American public image disaster in Afghanistan;
- The joint statement on strategic partnership is declarative in nature as Washington has made no clear commitments;
- Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky failed to hinder international agreements within the U.S.-Germany-Russia triangle; and
- In domestic affairs, Zelensky is going through difficult times, and in this regard, his hopes for lobbying support from the United States have not materialized.
It seems we see nothing new in the efforts pursued in Ukraine by Russian propaganda and their allies.
However, these narratives were also circulated by outlets close to the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. The Moscow Patriarchate probably forgot about its “non-political status” yet again, so each of these narratives was spun by their Pravblog Telegram channel.
At the same time, although Pravblog added at the closing of the Kremlin’s narrative on the outcome of the Zelensky-Biden summit that the negative results of the talks could affect the prospects for expanding Phanar’s influence in Ukraine, the message lacked any other religious content to be referred to as, well, a religious piece.
Obviously, the piece is 100% percent political. And thus it becomes clear that the ROCinU, as a branch of the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, obeys all orders coming from the Kremlin, partaking in anti-Ukrainian propaganda efforts, without thinking about the implication of being drawn into a purely political plane.
