DISINFO: After 2014 coup, Ukraine committed genocide in Donbas
SUMMARY
In 2013, an anti-constitutional coup took place in Ukraine. It was an armed coup d'etat with the help of foreign special services. [...] Then they went east. It was not a fight against some separatists, it was a war against the entire nation. This is the Ukrainian civil war. It is genocide.
RESPONSE
A mix of several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in eastern Ukraine, presenting the conflict as a “civil war” and the genocide of its own people in Donbas. This narrative denies the role of Russian forces in the war in Ukraine. It also discredits the public protests in 2013-2014 describing them as an anti-constitutional coup.
The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation".
There was no coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction from several segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, after pressure from Russia.
See similar disinformation cases in our database, alleging that there is a civil war in Ukraine and that the Ukrainian army commits the genocide in Donbas: Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against Donbas because they refused to recognise the results of the coup; the Donbas conflict has an internal character and originates in the unconstitutional coup d'etat; Ukraine intends to commit genocide in the Donbas; there will be genocide in Donbas if Ukraine regains its border's control, like in Srebrenica; the genocide of the people of Donbas began in 2013-2014; only Ukraine is responsible for civil war in Donbas.