DISINFO: Russia is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict nor the subject of the Minsk agreements
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of interfering in the country’s internal affairs. In January 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a statement in which the Russian Federation is called an “aggressor country”. Russia denies the accusations of the Ukrainian side and calls them unacceptable. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict nor it is subject of the Minsk agreements on the settlement and that it is interested in Kyiv overcoming the political and economic crisis.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine, attempting to portray it as a civil war.
There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
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 Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine in the strongest terms and demanded that Russia stop and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and along the country’s border.
The Minsk agreements (the 2014 memorandum and 2015 plan of action) is the roadmap to the stabilisation of the situation in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk. It is true that both documents do not mention Russia as a side involved in the war, however, the documents do not mention the sides whatsoever. Still, the Minsk agreements do not define the conflict in Ukraine as "internal" but state clearly (paragraph 10) the need to withdraw “all foreign armed formations, military equipment, as well as mercenaries from the territory of Ukraine under the monitoring of the OSCE.”
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine in 2015.