DISINFO: Donbas problem arose after the Kyiv coup
SUMMARY
… The (Donbas) problem arose after the coup in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in 2014 when the residents of the region, mostly Russian-speaking, supported the establishment of two popular republics to confront the new Ukrainian regime that they rejected.
The response of the revolutionaries was to launch a military campaign against their opponents in the Donbas region.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Euromaidan and war in Ukraine.
The territories of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts (regions) are internationally recognised parts of Ukraine. The EU has on numerous times mentioned that Ukraine’s borders must be respected. On 27 March 2014, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 68/262 confirming Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Moreover, Russia had also pledged to respect the borders of Crimea in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994 and in the Ukraine-Russia Friendship Treaty of 1997.
There was no coup d'état 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.
The war in Eastern Ukraine is not a civil conflict, but an act of aggression by the Russian armed forces, that has been ongoing since February 2014.
According to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Russian special forces and troops operated to mobilise, lead, equip, and support separatist militias in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine from spring 2014 to the present, although their presence was denied by Moscow.
Ukraine began its response to the Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine on April 13, 2014, after the pro-Russian separatists supported by Moscow took control over several cities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.