Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry
Maria Zakharova/Russian Foreign Ministry
Maria Zakharova is the Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.
On the very first day of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zakharova stated that the Russian Federation had not started the war but was ending it. Continuing the constant propaganda line of the Russian leadership, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry emphasised that the aggressor country was supposedly trying to “prevent a huge war,” and that is why it was supposedly “forced” to attack Ukraine.
Further in her rhetoric, she continued to cover up the criminal full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine as the alleged “defense of Donbas.” In the spirit of Kremlin rhetoric, Zakharova called the events in Ukraine in 2014 a “coup d’état” and accused the Kyiv authorities of allegedly “killing the Ukrainian population.”
*The material was created in cooperation with the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
Main statements
1. She called the goals of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “an attempt to prevent a global war” and “the end of the 8-year war in Donbas” (February 24, 2022)
2. She stated that Russia was “ending the war” and accused the world of indifference to Donbas (February 28, 2022)
3. She stated that the Russian Federation had never threatened with nuclear weapons (May 19, 2022)
4. She stated that the hundreds of Ukrainians killed by Russians in Izium, Kharkiv region, were allegedly “staged like in Bucha” (September 29, 2022)
5. She stated that “the US is encouraging Ukraine to go to war,” and this was hindering negotiations with Russia (October 10, 2022)
6. She accused Europe of supplying weapons to Ukraine and indifference to the war in Donbas (October 22, 2022)
