Ukraine's MFA demands Financial Times conduct investigation into materials bearing signs of disinformation in Russia's interests

Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko wrote about this on Facebook. 

Nikolenko noted that the Financial Times article of February 6, 2023, “Moldova’s PM calls for more EU help to curb Ukraine war smuggling,” distorted the words of former Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilița.

According to Nikolenko, the article begins by saying that Natalia Gavrilița told the Financial Times that her country has seen an increase in smuggling of weapons, people and goods from Ukraine amid the war.

The author goes on to describe the scale of the problem: “Illegal smuggling of arms, people and goods from Ukraine has been a major fear for EU countries since Russia’s invasion last February, exacerbated by the vast amount of weapons supplied to the country over the past 11 months and the increased levels of people seeking to leave.”

In response, as the article notes, Brussels has set up a "support hub" in Moldova in an effort to monitor and curb attempts of illegal trafficking. This initiative, according to Gavrilița, has achieved “successful efforts to stop the smuggling of weapons and people”.

Nikolenko emphasizes that the direct quote from the former head of the Moldovan government: “We don't want to become a country where security threats are growing or where... human trafficking or smuggling is intensifying” does not correspond to the words in the headline.

“Natalia Gavrilița also says that Moldova needs EU support to 'prevent the smuggling network from growing'. This is a perfectly legitimate wish of a representative of a country having war next door. But does the Moldovan former prime minister directly talk about the facts of arms smuggling or its increase? No,” the foreign ministry spokesman emphasized.

“The author of the article also does not provide any evidence of arms smuggling. Moreover, we have not received any confirmed information or specific facts from the Moldovan side about the supply of smuggled weapons from Ukraine,” he added.

Oleh Nikolenko believes that the Financial Times article is disinformation aimed at discrediting international military assistance to Ukraine. He reminded that the Russian Federation is investing numerous resources to prevent the supply of Western weapons to Ukraine.

“It is obvious that the Financial Times article was intended to increase the fear in the West that the weapons being transferred to Ukraine will turn against the Western countries themselves, falling into the hands of criminal elements,” Nikolenko wrote. 

“We demand that the Financial Times immediately conduct an editorial investigation into the circumstances of the publication of materials that have all the signs of disinformation in the interests of Russia.”