Truth Under Siege: Confronting Russia's Lies

Listening to Dmitry Polyansky, Russia's UN representative, on Radio 4's Today programme, my blood ran cold. The sheer volume of falsehoods was staggering, a performance that would have made Goebbels himself applaud. What was more disturbing: the lies themselves, or the interviewer's apparent reluctance to challenge them?

Why was Polyansky's characterisation of President Zelensky as a 'warmonger' allowed to stand unchallenged? The undeniable truth is that Russia initiated the conflict, invading a sovereign Ukraine three years earlier, a nation posing no threat. Russia's violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, which guaranteed Ukraine's territorial integrity, began with the 2014 annexation of Crimea and escalated to the current full-scale invasion. Trusting any Russian pronouncement has become utterly impossible.  

However, confronting a Russian representative today demands immense courage. Putin's reach extends far beyond Russia's borders, targeting those who dare to oppose him, regardless of their perceived threat.

Consider the chilling pattern: Aleksei Navalny, Putin's most vocal critic, found dead in an Arctic prison. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner Group's outspoken leader, perished in a plane crash. Sergei Yushenkov, an anti-Kremlin party leader, assassinated outside his Moscow home. Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist documenting human rights abuses, murdered in her apartment. Aleksandr Litvinenko, poisoned with polonium-210 in London. Sergei Skripal, a former Russian spy, and his daughter Yulia, victims of a Novichok attack in Salisbury. The list of silenced voices grows relentlessly.  

In Eastern Europe, particularly in Poland, families live with the constant fear of Russian aggression, their suitcases packed, ready to flee. Should Putin succeed in Ukraine, his ambitions will inevitably expand.

This is not a matter of speculation, but a chilling certainty.