Introduction

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MEGArundown was a format intended as a short form version of the MEGA documentaries, intended to be presented as videos that would be around 5-15 minutes long, the idea I had for the format was that it could get our points across to audiences who didn’t have the time or interest to watch an hour+ long documentary, and also potentially act as a “gateway drug” to the full production, you would get a taste of the themes in the rundown and that would spark your interest, drawing you into the full documentary.

I wrote MEGArundown scripts for the first 2 episodes of MEGA (“Yeonmi and North Korea” and “The Ukraine Narratives”) back in March 2022, but they were never made, as time passed and we worked on new projects it became less important to direct viewers to these old docs.

I’m releasing the 2 MEGArundown scripts here on Entropic Domain both as a bit of cut content/historical curiosity and so they can potentially fulfil their original purpose, if you don’t have the time to read/watch our first 2 MEGA episodes you can read the rundowns instead and get the gist of what we had to say, enjoy!

This script was originally written from the 15th-17th of March 2022, and first released publicly on the 25th of February 2024 (via this website)

MEGArundown: The Ukraine Narratives

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Misinformation is a problem with any kind of journalism, but in times of war this issue is massively amplified as sides of a conflict try to promote their own narratives, weaponizing information and misinformation to do so.

The latest example of this is the war currently taking place between Russia and Ukraine.

Supporters of Russia cast its actions as a “special military operation” to liberate Ukraine from Fascist militants committing genocide against the Russian speaking minorities of Ukraine’s eastern regions; While Ukraine supporters casts the Russian actions as an invasion by a Fascistic tyrant plotting to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people as a whole and labels the militants Russia accuses of Fascism as merely “patriots”.

Both of these narratives feature similar accusations against their enemies, neither embrace the full truth.

These militants do exist in Ukraine, represented by a battalion in Ukraine’s National Guard known as “Azov”, and in the past they have played a role in fighting for Ukraine against a long running insurgency in the country’s east, where Pro-Russia Separatists demanding a split from Ukraine battled Pro Ukraine forces in an independence struggle; Azov are now part of the movement opposing Russia as the conflict spreads from the east to the rest of the country as a result of this new war.

The Pro-Russia narrative is correct to label Azov as a Fascist force, they are well known for their use of Neo Nazi symbolism and to label them simply as a band of “patriots” is untrue. However, Azov is only a tiny fraction of the Pro Ukraine forces, and has little support in Ukraine politically.

On the other hand, the Pro-Russia separatists have also faced a Nazi problem among their ranks in the past, and the Pro-Ukraine narrative is correct in characterising Russia’s actions as an invasion: Ukraine is a sovereign nation recognised by all other nations and Russian troops are responsible for large scale uninvited intrusion into Ukraine’s territory, this can only be characterised as an invasion.

The separatists also deserve the right to sovereignty too if they want it, but Russia’s motives are not as related to aiding the separatist regions as the Pro Russia narratives would have you believe, Russia used the idea of protecting the separatists as a pretext for the invasion, and Ukraine’s fight with the separatists is a separate issue from the fight it has with the Russian state.

While Russia’s actions are not as noble as they wish to present, they are not random or unprovoked either, this war has long running causes. 

Since 2014 Ukraine has been dominated by a leadership that desires to join the US-led military alliance of NATO, Russia has maintained a long running opposition to the expansion of NATO into former members of its predecessor nation (the Soviet Union) or its military alliance (the Warsaw Pact) considering the idea of this expansion close to its borders an unacceptable threat to its security.

When Russia failed to achieve its goal of receiving guarantees that Ukraine would not join NATO its leaders decided to replace diplomacy with brute force, as Ukraine is not currently a NATO member, only a country aspiring to join, it is not protected by NATO’s mutual defence treaty and NATO is not willing to risk a wider European or World War to retaliate against Russia.

Russia’s defence for these actions is that they are entitled to a sphere of influence around their borders where rival military alliances cannot expand, believing that a nation like the United States, which strongly opposes the invasion, would not tolerate a similar expansion near their own territory; Pro-Russia activists reinforce this argument by pointing to the Cuban missile crisis, where America forced the Soviet Union to withdraw from a country near their borders, as proof of this.

The response of the US and other NATO nations is that there are no more spheres of influence in the world, but critics point out that Russia’s military alliance, the CSTO, has no presence near American or Western European borders, while Russia is bordered by multiple NATO nations and a NATO Ukraine would only add to this power imbalance.

Ultimately, while Russia may have valid opposition to the idea of a NATO Ukraine, it is not currently a member and was not in any serious position to join the alliance for years or even decades, Russia’s security concerns do not justify their invasion of a sovereign nation whose people do not want Russian troops on their streets.

Similarly, the response to Russia from Western nations, imposing wide ranging economic sanctions, comes from valid opposition to an issue, in this case Russia’s invasion, but is just as unjustified. 

Imposing sanctions that will wreck the livelihoods of a population numbering over 100 million cannot be validated, it will not prevent Russia’s war but will cause major harm to ordinary people, many of these people are against the war, thousands have been arrested in Russia for protesting it.

Sanctions punishing the masses of a country for the decisions of its leaders have a track record of failure¹ and humanitarian damage, they are intolerable.

As this conflict persists the risk of harm for all parties involved, and those in the wider region, increases massively, and there is a major potential for misinformation campaigns to promote hate and distort worldviews; The importance of honest journalism, committed to the facts, cannot be overstated.

Want to know more? 

• Watch or read the full documentary, MEGA: The Ukraine Narratives, Media and War:

Welcome to MEGA.

Changelog

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Edit 1 - 06/03/2024 - Replaced documentary hyperlink at the end with a nicer looking article link Edit 2 - 07/03/2024 - Changed date to when the script was finished (as opposed to when it was first released publicly), added extra line splitting release disclaimer from article

Footnotes

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