More accurate to say, for a lie to be believe, the listener must want it to be true.
Endless examples of people denying obvious truths that they dislike and an equal number believing easily refuted lies because they like it.
The actual plausibility of a statement comes second for many people. Especially when doubting it invites state or public consequences.
The Ukranian govt.'s politics are American politics. They're certainly not acting in the interests of Ukranian civillians and haven't been for a long time. This may be Russia's biggest miscalculation - the expectation that Ukranian and Western govts. would act in the interests of their people. But as we destroy our industries rather than buy cheap Russian oil, undermine the world's trust in our economic systems by weaponising them for political purpose; and Zelensky continues to refuse negotiation and has Ukranian mayors killed for doing so and conscripts men from 18 to 60 and sends them to fight against an army, it becomes very plain to see that our governments are not acting out of the interests of any ordinary people.
If they were, this war could have been avoided.