Kathrine Frich
From the Tsarist era to Soviet rule, propaganda has been a core weapon in Russia’s political arsenal.
Today, that tradition continues under Vladimir Putin. Through a careful blend of narratives, the Kremlin presents aggression as defense and conquest as protection.
Analysts warn that these shifting stories are designed to confuse the West and weaken its resolve. What seems like talk of peace is in fact a long campaign of manipulation.
1. The “will of the people”
The first and most familiar story began in Crimea and spread through Donetsk and Luhansk.
Moscow claimed it was protecting Russian speakers from alleged genocide, staging illegal referendums and calling its troops “local separatists.”
Before the full invasion in February 2022, Vladimir Putin declared that Russia was acting to “protect people subjected to humiliation and genocide by the Kiev regime.”
He promised the “demilitarization” and “denazification” of Ukraine.
This narrative still shapes Kremlin messaging. Yet Kyiv’s refusal to surrender any territory reflects a clear understanding:
Russia’s objectives extend beyond Crimea and Donbas. It seeks control over the entire Ukrainian state.
2. “Historical Russian lands”
The second story revives Novorossia — “New Russia” — a term from the Tsarist Empire describing lands stretching to the Black Sea.
After the failure to seize Kyiv in 2022, Moscow used this idea to justify its occupation of southern and eastern Ukraine.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov recently said that “Ukraine has the right to exist, provided that it lets the peoples who feel part of Russian culture leave.”
Though dismissed abroad as propaganda, such remarks reveal a strategic aim: restoring imperial influence in Eastern Europe.
According to military analysts, this language points to ambitions far beyond the 2014 borders.
Russia’s plan is not limited to annexation but to reassert dominance across its former sphere of control.
3. “One people, one nation”
For years, Putin has argued that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people.”
In a 2021 essay, he claimed that Ukraine is not a legitimate state but part of the “Russian world.”
He repeated this message in June 2025, declaring, “Russia and Ukraine are one. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours.”
Former President Dmitry Medvedev added, “Ukraine is, without a doubt, Russia.”
This idea underpins Moscow’s demands: Ukraine must remain neutral, abandon NATO aspirations, shrink its army, and accept a government loyal to the Kremlin.
The goal is not coexistence but full political control.
4. “The Russian world”
The fourth story, known as Russkiy Mir, stretches far beyond Russia’s present borders. It claims all lands once part of Kievan Rus, the Tsarist Empire, and the Soviet Union.
Putin recently said, “Wherever a Russian soldier has stepped, it is Russian land.”
The same doctrine shaped Moscow’s 2021 ultimatum that NATO retreat to its 1997 borders, which would effectively leave Eastern Europe exposed.
This worldview gives Moscow the pretext to assert dominance from the Baltic Sea to the Balkans.
Ukraine, analysts say, is only the opening move in a much larger effort to restore Russia’s great-power reach.
The larger truth
Moscow portrays the war as a reaction to NATO’s expansion, but history shows that nations joined the alliance to protect themselves from Russian aggression.
Since 2022, the Kremlin has accused the West of seeking to “dismember” Russia, framing its invasion as a defensive crusade.
Europe has started to respond. Member states of the European Union are rebuilding their defense forces, while Brussels has launched the Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030, a plan to ensure military preparedness by decade’s end.
Although NATO avoids describing the current situation as an open hybrid war, its actions suggest quiet preparation for possible direct confrontation.
Russia’s four stories mask a single reality: a drive to rebuild empire and overturn Europe’s security order.
Ukraine is not the goal but the gateway. The defense of Europe now begins with understanding the true purpose behind the Kremlin’s propaganda.
Sources: Kyiv Post, Ziare.com, Kremlin statements, EU Defense Readiness Roadmap 2030
This article is made and published by Kathrine Frich, who may have used AI in the preparation
