No, NATO has not urged Ukraine to surrender, despite what social media posts claim
FILE - NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, right, and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participate in a media conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021. The Associated Press on Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023 reported on social media posts falsely claiming that NATO has called on Ukraine to surrender to Russia. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, File)
CLAIM: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has called on Ukraine to surrender to Russia.
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The 31-nation alliance has made no such call. The organization in a statement pointed to comments its secretary general made this week stressing that NATO remains committed to supporting Ukraine and that any decision to negotiate peace would be up to the Eastern European nation.
THE FACTS: As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches its second anniversary in February, social media users are claiming some of Ukraine’s most powerful backers are urging it to concede.
Many are sharing a video claiming U.S. and European officials are calling on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to negotiate peace with Russia and bring an end to the war.
“NATO calls on Ukraine to SURRENDER & GAME OVER,” reads the text over the video, which includes snippets of war footage interspersed with Zelenskyy’s public appearances and screenshots of various news stories about the ongoing conflict.
“It’s over gang. It’s I mean frankly it was over before it ever started,” the man on the video says as the nearly eight-minute clip opens. “Now at the outset we have to ask ourselves what on earth was all of this for? These last several months of death and destruction. What on earth was all of it for?”
But the military alliance, which includes the U.S., Canada and much of western Europe, has made no such statement.
“This is a bogus claim,” the organization stressed in an emailed reply to The Associated Press this week. “NATO’s position on this matter has been clear and consistent throughout.”
The organization’s statement pointed to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s comments Tuesday reaffirming that the alliance remains committed to supporting Ukraine militarily.
“We cannot allow President Putin to win,” he said ahead of a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union, according to a transcript of the remarks. “Ukraine must prevail as a sovereign independent nation in Europe and it’s in our interest to support Ukraine.”
Stoltenberg added that any negotiations with Russia are ultimately up to Ukraine.
“It is for Ukraine to decide on what are acceptable conditions for negotiations and, even more important, what are acceptable conditions for any agreement,” he said. “The responsibility of the NATO allies is to support Ukraine to defend itself because this is also in our interest to show that we are standing up for the rule of law and international law and that we’re helping Ukraine to fight back against a war of aggression.”
The widely shared video cites an NBC News story from earlier this month reporting that U.S. and European officials are privately talking with their Ukrainian counterparts about what peace with Russia might entail, including what Ukraine might need to give up in such a deal.
But the Biden administration, in a statement to NBC News, reiterated that “any decisions about negotiations are up to Ukraine.”
“We are focused on continuing to stand strongly in support of Ukraine as they defend their freedom and independence against Russian aggression,” Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council, told the broadcast network.
Meanwhile the head of the European Union on Wednesday proposed to member states a new package of tighter sanctions against Russia.
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This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
