DISINFO: Russia has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine

The concept of "civil war" in Ukraine is a classic narrative of Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Five years ago, in April 2014, the head of the National Security Council of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchinov, announced the launch of the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Eastern Ukraine. This was a reaction to attempts by illegal Russian armed groups controlled by Russia to seize administrative buildings and security forces in the Donbas. The fighting began the next day of the same year. Later, the anti-terrorist operation was reformatted into the United Force Operation. After the outbreak of hostilities in the Donbas, there was a reaction from the United States and the European Union, which imposed the first sanctions against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine. Anti-Russian restrictions have been repeatedly extended and supplemented. Ukraine has repeatedly provided evidence of Russia's participation in the war in the east of the country. In January 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported that Kyiv filed a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice of the United Nations with the aim of bringing Russia to responsibility for committing acts of terrorism and discrimination, which are the result of its illegal aggression against Ukraine. The lawsuit contains all the facts of Russian aggression against Ukraine, evidence of the illegal annexation of the Crimea and the occupation of Donbas. In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in April 2018 at the official level found Russia guilty of occupying Donbas. The Assembly’s report introduced the concept of "temporarily occupied territories (of Ukraine) in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, controlled by the Russian occupation administration".