The government of Ukraine recently appointed a top diplomat whose primary goal is to counter Russian disinformation about the war reaching audiences in Latin America, Ambassador Ruslan Spirin told The Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald in an exclusive interview.
Spirin, who was appointed special envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean in August, urged the region’s governments and citizens to seek “alternative” information to contrast the content published by Russian outlets RT and Sputnik, whose Spanish language platforms have millions of viewers in Latin America and have been the source of political concerns in the U.S.
“They are distributing disinformation and propaganda. They are experts, they know how to manipulate their people and they are releasing that same information in six languages, spending millions of dollars to transmit an image that is not right,” said the special envoy in a video call from Kyiv on Wednesday.
Conducting the interview in Spanish, he also thanked Latin American countries that voted in the United Nations to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine and have contributed financial support to the more than eight million Ukrainian refugees. But he also called on countries to cut trading with Russia and withdraw their money from Russian banks so they don’t end up financing the war.
While many Latin American countries have voted to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the United Nations, they have stopped short of imposing sanctions on Russia or canceling trading agreements.
Spirin, a seasoned diplomat who has held high-ranking positions in government and was ambassador to Mexico until 2020, was also careful not to criticize countries like Cuba, whose state media have peddled Russian disinformation. He said he believes that is a result of Russia President Vladimir Putin’s pressure on the island’s government, which has a standing debt with Russia.
“Regarding the Cuban government, of course, we would like it to support us in international organizations, in the U.N.,” Spirin said. Cuba declined to vote against a U.N. resolution condemning Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in March and later voted against expelling Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“We understand that Russia has a lot of influence there (in Cuba) because of the debt, but the countries of the world are supporting peace instead of the occupying aggressors,” he said. “And I’m sure the people of Cuba are supporting the same thing.”
He called on Cuban authorities to seek more information about what is happening on the ground.
“We are telling the truth, and for that, we don’t need to expend millions,” he said.
For Spirin, the truth his government wants audiences to know is that of a country fighting to the death to expel “barbaric” invaders and whose army is turning around the conflict despite early expectations of its defeat by a much more formidable Russian force.
“What Russia tried to conquer for four months, the Ukrainian army has recovered in four days,” he said, speaking of the latest Ukrainian counteroffensive that allowed its forces to take back from Russia hundreds of miles of territory and about 300 towns and cities in the Kharkiv region.
More crucially, he says, it is not only Ukraine’s independence that is at stake.
“We are defending our families and our land, and we are also defending the territories of Europe because some Russian deputies are saying that they are determined to conquer other countries, and that is a global threat,” Spirin said. “We are defending the entire international security system here in Ukraine; we are defending the whole world against global evil.”
It is a war “between civilization and barbarism, a police state dictatorship and Ukraine’s democracy,” the ambassador added before recounting some of the horrors committed by Russian troops during the war in Bucha and other Ukrainian towns, in many cases confirmed by foreign media and human rights organizations.
“They have cut noses and ears, killed people who had their hands tied, raped children in front of their parents,” he said.
The Ukrainian diplomat also denounced Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, including maternity hospitals, schools, churches and shopping malls.
“The air alarm sounds several times a day, and we must go down to the basements to hide in safe places because a bomb or missile can fall on our heads,” he said. “But we are no longer afraid; we are tired of being afraid. We’re still working, and we’re still living our lives.”
