Russia targets South Africa with disinformation to discredit US aid to Ukraine

On April 22, the U.S. State Department released its annual “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” presenting what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called “a factual, systematic account of human rights records across nearly 200 countries and territories.”

On Ukraine, the report is divided into two parts – one for the Ukrainian government-controlled regions, and the other for the territories under the Russian occupation, where Blinken said “[t]he Kremlin’s disregard and contempt for human rights are on full display.”

Overall, the report states that the “significant human rights issues involving Ukrainian government officials” have surged in the territories liberated from the Russian forces, including “credible reports” of torture, kidnappings, and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; along with press freedom restrictions, restrictions on free speech, problems with judicial independence and government corruption.

“Some of these human rights issues stemmed from martial law, which continued to curtail democratic freedoms, including freedom of movement, freedom of the press, freedom of peaceful assembly, and legal protections. The government often did not take adequate steps to identify and punish officials who may have committed abuses,” the report said.

“In contrast to Russia and its proxies, Ukraine has committed to investigating the small number of alleged abuses by its forces,” the U.S. State Department spokesperson told Polygraph.info.

“These alleged violations of international humanitarian law are incomparable to the scale and nature of abuses perpetrated by members of Russia’s forces, and Ukraine has fully cooperated with investigators from human rights groups examining them.”

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Russian Embassy in South Africa omitted the war context and Russia’s own record, cherry-picking from the report and misleadingly tying Ukraine’s issues to the military aid the U.S. is providing Kyiv.

“With all that, Zelenskyy regime will soon be provided with additional $61B financial aid from the U.S. Combating corruption and human rights violations, Western style,” the embassy commented.

That is misleading.

The United States provides both military and civilian aid to Ukraine and other countries via different programs and agencies and under different conditions.

U.S. military assistance provides Ukraine with the means to defend itself from the Russian aggression. A large portion of the aid packages, including the latest $61 billion, entail sending preexisting military stocks to Ukraine, and investing the money back home to replenish the U.S.’s own stocks.

The U.S. allocates civilian assistance to Ukraine mostly through the United States Agency for International Development or USAID. These funds are designated for such efforts as anti-corruption and democratic governance, civil society development, and fostering an independent judiciary.

Both military and civilian aid programs require a process based on transparency and accountability.

Russia traditionally builds up on a lack of public knowledge about the details and processes of the U.S. aid to foreign countries to propagate anti-U.S. sentiments and discredit Washington’s global engagement.

Contrary to Moscow’s persistent disinformation that portrays Ukraine as one of the most corrupt nations in the world, Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Index showed that Ukraine is making progress on the corruption front, while Russia continues to backslide. For 2023, Ukraine climbed 12 positions to 104 place out of 180 countries. Russia dropped two spots to 141 place.

The State Department also indicated that there were no reports implicating Ukrainian government officials or agents of committing “arbitrary or unlawful killings.”

At the same time, severe violations are prominent in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, including “numerous, documented reports of Russia’s forces or their proxies committing arbitrary or unlawful killings in all occupied areas.”

The United Nations shared that assessment in an earlier report “Russian authorities have committed indiscriminate attacks and the war crimes of torture, rape and other sexual violence, and deportation of children to the Russian Federation.”

In its 2024 Freedom in the World report, the Washington, D.C.-based human rights group Freedom House, which assesses countries political rights and civil liberties on a 100-point scale, gave Ukraine a score of 49, and found it to be “partly free.”

It assigned Russia a score of 13, determining the country is “not free.”

Freedom House found that Ukraine’s government “has enacted a number of positive reforms as part of a drive to strengthen democratic institutions.”

It also found Russia’s invasion has “led to significant deterioration in the political rights and civil liberties enjoyed by Ukrainians,” some due to the martial law, which compelled the government to suspend some clauses of the European Convention on Human Rights and Freedoms.

To join the European Union, Ukraine must meet the accession criteria, commonly called the Copenhagen criteria, which include “stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.”

In June 2022, European leaders agreed to grant Ukraine EU candidate status, then in December 2023, to open EU accession talks with Ukraine, after the European Commission concluded that “Ukraine is well advanced in reaching the stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities.”

Since Ukraine regained independence after the dissolution of the USSR, the U.S. has taken an active role in combating corruption in Ukraine, including by linking civilian aid to Kyiv to government reform, financial transparency and other anti-corruption efforts.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, USAID has provided $2 billion in humanitarian aid, $2.9 billion in development assistance, and $22.9 billion in direct budget support to help Ukraine fund anti-corruption efforts and address human rights issues.

In September 2023, the U.S. announced more than $200 million in assistance to support democracy, governance and human rights in Ukraine, implement the State Anti-Corruption Program, and fund judicial reforms “necessary for advancing EU integration.”