The West created Ukraine in order to wage war on Russian civilisation.
Summary
The Crimean peninsula returned to Russia after the referendum that was held there in March 2014, when 96.77 per cent of the electorate in the Crimea and 95.6 per cent of the Sevastopol population voted in favour of joining Russia. This referendum was held by the Crimean authorities after the coup in Ukraine in February 2014.
Disproof
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the illegal annexation of Crimea, claiming that it voted to rejoin Russia through a legal referendum after what it claims to be a coup d'état in Ukraine.
The Euromaidan protest was not a coup, but a nationwide civil protest against former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union and subsequent violation of constitutional rights, such as freedom of expression, the right to protest, and others. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim here.
No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin recognised in 2014 the involvement of Russian forces and also later admitted proudly that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order. In response to the illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU has imposed restrictive measures against the Russian Federation. In June 2020, the European Council decided to renew the sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation until 23 June 2021.
Check previous disinformation narratives in our database alleging that the EU has accepted Crimea's incorporation into Russia and that the Crimean people chose to be with Russia through the democratic procedure; or that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine; or that it is impossible to recognize the annexation of Crimea because it never happened; or that Crimea is a Russian sovereign region.