The former Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner was removed from her position.
QUICK FACTS:
- Former Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner former Lyudmila Denisova was removed (here) from her position following a no-confidence vote in the Ukrainian parliament.
- Denisova was found to have spread misinformation about Russian troops committing mass rape in order to gain sympathy and convince western nations to send more weapons to Ukraine.
- Ukrainian parliament member Pavlo Frolov accused Denisova of pushing a misinformation campaign that “only harmed Ukraine.”
- Included in the accusation were “the numerous details of ‘unnatural sexual offenses’ and child sexual abuses in the occupied territories, which were unsupported by evidence.”
- Parliament voted Denisova out by a margin of 234-9 after details of her misinformation campaign came to light and she admitted to the scheme.
DENISOVA’S COMMENTS ABOUT HER ACTIONS:
- Denisova admitted in a recent interview with a Ukrainian news outlet that while she did lie, she achieved her goal by doing so: “When, for example, I spoke in the Italian parliament at the Committee on International Affairs, I heard and saw such fatigue from Ukraine, you know? I talked about terrible things in order to somehow push them to make the decisions that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people need,” she said.
- The former Ukrainian official noted that Italy’s Five Star Movement was originally “against the provision of weapons to us, but after [her] speech, one of the party leaders… said that they will support [us], including by the provision of weapons.”
- Reports based on Denisova’s misinformation about mass rape were heavily reported by media outlets, with mainstream publishers such as CNN and the Washington Post creating something of a frenzy around the reports.
BACKGROUND:
- According to former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the war between Russia and Ukraine is accelerating a shift toward a “new world order.”
- “I think we are approaching a new world order, where we see two camps: an autocratic camp led by China, and a democratic camp led by the U.S.,” Rasmussen said on the eve of his Copenhagen Democracy Summit.
