DISINFO: In 2014, Ukraine launched a military operation against DPR and LPR
SUMMARY
In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, which declared independence after the coup d'etat in Kyiv.
The issue of resolving the situation in Donbas is being discussed, including during the meetings of the contact group. However, even after the ceasefire agreement, shootings continue, and the DPR has previously announced that residential areas were shelled by Ukrainian heavy artillery. Kyiv is not fulfilling the Minsk agreements and is delaying negotiations to resolve the conflict, and against this background, NATO is transferring equipment to the borders of the Russian Federation.
RESPONSE
Several recurring disinformation messages about war in Ukraine, Euromaidan and Minsk agreements.
The war in Ukraine is a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas. Russia is supporting its proxies with weapons, its active-duty soldiers serve there and its top military commanders visit the war zone to coordinate joint efforts with the separatists. Despite all this Russia officially denies its military presence in Donbas.
Contrary to the claims, the main impediment to a peace settlement in Donbas is, in fact, Russia’s and its proxies’ deliberate unwillingness to implement the Minsk agreements.
There was no coup d’état in Kyiv in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.