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- Date of publication: July 26, 2020
- Outlet language(s): Arabic
- Reported in: Issue 206
- Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia
DISINFO: Ukrainian government launched a military operation against Donetsk and Lugansk in 2014
SUMMARY
Armed conflict has continued in southeast Ukraine (the Donbas region) since April 2014, as the Ukrainian government launched a military operation against the two republics (Donetsk and Lugansk) that announced their secession after the coup in Kyiv that led to the overthrow of the government of President Viktor Yanukovych.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative painting the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv as a coup d'état and a conflict between the eastern regions and Ukraine. The war in eastern Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014. Furthermore, there was no coup d'etat in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was an organic reaction by numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim. Read similar cases that the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas and Luhansk independence trigged a Ukrainian military operation, and that the extreme coup in Kyiv led to the return of Crimea and in addition, that Crimean people have expressed their desire to rejoin Russia and even that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine. Regarding the war in eastern Ukraine, see claims that Ukraine launched a military operation against Donetsk and Luhansk and that the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas.