A Ukrainian journalist has suggested there are similar messages sent by Russians to her co-nationals as the Nazis were sending to the Soviet people in 1941.
Olena Churanova, fact-checker at stopfake.org, a source which other fact-checkers say is “credible” but “pro-Ukraine”, shared a message from the Nazis to the “people of Moscow” from the Second World War.
It read: “People of Moscow! Germany did not want war. The German army is not an enemy of the people. It fights only against communist anarchy and against the criminals who sit in Kremlin.
“Your Jewish-Communist rulers have caused the war. They also forced the red pilots to bombard the defenseless capitals of Finland and Romania: Helsinki and Bucharest.
It added: “Hitler ordered his armed forces to give an immediate response to the bombing raids.
“You now have to suffer because of the criminal policy of Stalin and his henchmen. Rise up against the swindlers, they have oppressed you for 24 years. Chase them! If you liquidate them, then the German pilots will stop.”
Russia reportedly sent message to Ukrainians
A message reportedly sent by Russia to “residents of Ukraine” read that “Russia is not at war with the Ukrainian people.”
It added: “This is not an occupation! We guarantee you peace and security! Take care of each other! It will be over soon.
“Power in Ukraine belongs to people! The Russian soldier is not your enemy! Take care of yourselves! It will be over soon.”
Kremlin Trolls Counter Intelligence Unit, which claims to ‘fight Russian propaganda’, concluded Russian president Vladimir Putin is “using similar propaganda” as Adolf Hitler, Germany’s dictator throughout World War II.
What Russia says it wants – and Corbyn agrees
Putin said Russia was intervening to “demilitarise” and “de-Nazify” Ukraine, not to occupy it, arguing Ukraine’s military has shown far-right aggression towards pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas.
Russia meanwhile moved to recognise the two republics in the region, Donetsk and Luhansk, as independent, sparking international outcry about not respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Kremlin also wants to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO, and demands legally-binding security guarantees from the western-led military alliance.
According to Russian news agency TASS, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow is rejecting NATO’s further expansion, which could see Ukraine and Georgia joining the bloc.
He added: “Western countries should refrain from establishing military facilities on the territory of former USSR states that are not members of the alliance, including the use of their infrastructure for conducting any military activity.
“It is necessary to return NATO’s military capabilities, including strike [capabilities], and NATO infrastructure to the state of 1997, when the NATO-Russia Founding Act was adopted.”
Former UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn seemed to back Russia’s position by saying the West should “go back to the original agreements” on Ukraine made in Budapest and Minsk, which he said were “designed to bring along a long-term ceasefire”.
Related: What my Auntie, who fled the Russians in 1944, taught me of war and refugees