DISINFO: Donetsk and Luhansk were attacked by Kyiv after opposing the coup
SUMMARY
In April of 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the residents of the unilaterally declared republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, as an expression of their opposition to the coup that took place in Ukraine in February of the same year.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation message about war in Ukraine and Euromaidan protests.
The war in Ukraine is a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces and is not an internal conflict. The involvement of Russian personnel and equipment in the creation of the DPR and LPR has been well documented already for years. The destabilisation of Eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea has been condemned by the Council of the European Union and led to restrictive measures since 2014.
Moreover, 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 and general discontent with the Yanukovych rule. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim.
Read similar cases in our database claiming that the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas; or that Ukraine is preparing a military escalation in Donbas; or that Russia has nothing to do with the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.