DISINFO: In 2014 coup Kyiv government carried out a war against its own people
DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
  • Outlet: RT DE - YouTube (archived)*
  • Date of publication: April 14, 2021
  • Article language(s): German
  • Reported in: Issue 235
  • Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia
Tags:
War in Ukraine Euromaidan Coup

DISINFO: In 2014 coup Kyiv government carried out a war against its own people

SUMMARY

We advise all responsible countries with which we are in contact (Turkey is one of them) to analyse the situation and Kyiv's ongoing bellicose statements. We warn them not to feed this militaristic mood. It is no secret that already in 2014 the new Kyiv government - the coup plotters - emboldened by the anti-constitutional coup, carried out an act of aggression against their own people. When officials of the Zelenskyy government say that Kyiv is not planning anything in the Donbas because it cannot fight its own people, they are not telling the truth. After the 'Revolution of Dignity', which was in fact an unconstitutional coup, Kyiv attacked its own people and has since waged a war against them, declaring its own citizens terrorists.

RESPONSE

Two interconnected recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives are used in this piece. One about the war in Ukraine, claiming that Russia is not part of the conflict in Donbas, that Russia has nothing to do with the war in eastern Ukraine and presenting the conflict as a “civil war”, a war against its own people in Donbas. The other is about an alleged anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan protests.

On the coup: The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction from several segments of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, after pressure from Russia. See the full debunk: The Western-backed coup in Ukraine has torn the country asunder.

On Russia ‘role within the war in Ukraine: The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation". At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014, NATO leaders condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and demanded Russia to stop and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and from the country’s border. NATO leaders also demanded Russia comply with international law and its international obligations and responsibilities; refrain from aggressive actions against Ukraine; halt the flow of weapons, equipment, people and money across the border to the separatists; and stop fomenting tension along and across the Ukrainian border.

In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine.

See similar disinformation cases alleging that Donbas rebelled because Russians in Ukraine were subjected to ethnocide, that after Euromaidan Ukraine lost its sovereignty and is falling apart, that the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas, or that Ukraine committed a crime by attacking its citizens in Donbas in 2014.

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Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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