Disinfo: Since 2014, Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbas

Summary

Since 2014, Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against the residents of Donbas, who refused to recognise the results of the coup d'etat and the new government in Ukraine. At the same time, Kyiv blames Moscow for the current situation. Russia has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in Eastern Ukraine, presenting the conflict as a “civil war”. The article also claims that the creation of DPR and LPR came as a response to the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv, often painted as a coup d'état.

There was no coup d’état in Kyiv in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.

The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict, where Ukraine is attacking Donbas, but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.

Russia is the party responsible for the deterioration of Ukrainian-Russian relations. Since 2014, Russia has waged large-scale armed aggression against Ukraine and is also responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in 2014, after having illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula and engineered the creation of rebel militias in Donetsk, Luhansk and other places, with its army actively participating in military clashes.

In March-April 2021, Russia was again concentrating massive military power on Ukraine’s borders and threatened to intervene in support of Eastern Ukrainian separatists, raising fears of an upcoming military operation against Ukrainian territory.

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.

Russia is internationally recognised as a warring side in the Donbas war. The leaders of the Group of Seven, G7, who met in Cornwall on 11-13 June 2021, said in a communiqué:

“We remain firmly of the view that Russia is a party to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, not a mediator. We affirm our support for the Normandy Process to secure the implementation of the Minsk agreements, and call on Russia and the armed formations it backs to engage constructively and recommit to the ceasefire.”
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iz.ru (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 258
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 09/09/2021
  • Article language(s) Russian
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Ukraine, Russia
  • Keywords: Donbas, DPR, LNR, Coup, Civil war, War in Ukraine, Minsk agreements
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Disinfo: The EU continues to pursue a discriminatory policy with the Crimea Platform

The provocative nature of the Ukrainian leadership’s idea of holding the so-called “Crimea Platform” “summit” was recorded, despite the fact that the question of the return of Crimea to the Russian Federation was closed in March 2014. In this regard, attention is drawn to the fact that the European Union continues to pursue a discriminatory policy against inhabitants of the peninsula.

Relations between Moscow and Kyiv deteriorated after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which led to the return of the Crimea to the bosom of Russia, and to the outbreak of armed conflict in the Donbas region (southeast of Ukraine) between Kyiv on the one hand and the "unrecognised" Donetsk and Luhansk republics on the other, which demanded more cultural and economic autonomy.

Sep 08, 2021
Disproof

An emerging disinformation narrative in response to the Crimea Platform Summit, a high-level international conference held on August 2021 that was initiated by Ukraine and focused on Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, while claiming that the foundation of the DPR and LPR came as a response to the 2013-14 protests in Kyiv painted as a coup d'état.

Although Russia attempted to disguise its military occupation of Crimea with a hastily organised sham referendum in March 2014, there is no international recognition of Russia's actions. Several major countries and international organisations have overwhelmingly rejected this charade, including in multiple UN General Assembly resolutions and EU statements. European Council President Charles Michel emphasised during the first Crimea Platform Summit the “EU's unwavering stance: we do not and will not recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by Russia."

Disinfo: The West uses Russian protest movements as a fifth column to destabilise Russia

The West – the US and its satellite, the EU - uses a fifth column and a sixth column inside Russia to destabilise Russia and attack its sovereignty. The 5th column is made up of protest movements and the liberal press in Russia. The 6th column is made up of Russia’s liberal pro-Western elite that enjoys a dominant position in Russia's economy, educational system, foreign policy, and culture. The 5th column and the 6th column both have the same supervisors, sources of support, and systems of communication. The sixth column secretly sympathises with protest movements but is outwardly loyal to Putin. Russian actors that support and develop a culture of liberalism are usually involved in providing classified information to the West and in organising direct actions of sabotage and destabilisation in Russia.

Sep 08, 2021
Disproof

This article repeats a narrative, increasingly spread by pro-Kremlin outlets, claiming that the West is waging a hybrid war against Russia. This narrative fits into the broader disinformation themes about the West’s allegedly belligerent and hostile agenda against Russia, about its alleged plans to destabilise and encircle Russia, and about Western support for “colour revolutions”.

The article’s message is also consistent with the recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Western intelligence services have recruited Russian opposition politicians and independent journalists to conduct espionage, sabotage and destabilisation operations against the Russian state. It adds a new twist to this narrative by alleging that many highly influential top-level Russian officials have also been recruited as Western intelligence assets and are also carrying out such operations. There is no factual evidence to support the article’s claims.

Disinfo: Latvia has been promoting Nazism for the last 30 years

Since the day of Latvian independence 30 years ago, its domestic and foreign policies are aimed at the glorification of Nazism, justification of war crimes, and rewriting of history.

Sep 08, 2021
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Nazism in the Baltic countries. The accusation of Nazism is one of the favourite techniques of pro-Kremlin outlets as explained in our past analysis Nazi east, Nazi west, Nazi over the cuckoo's nest.

It is also worth noting that in 1991, Latvia did not gain its independence for the first time but restored it after the long period of Soviet occupation. The Kremlin conducted a forced annexation of the Baltic states in June of 1940 following Soviet military occupation and the forced installation of “people’s governments”. On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression (Molotov-Ribbentrop) Pact whose secret protocols divided the territories belonging to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Romania into Soviet and Nazi spheres of influence. The Pact gave Stalin a free hand in the Baltic states.