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Disinfo: Terrorist acts in Ukraine are signs of a new Maidan

Summary

Two people have recently taken hostages in Ukraine. One took a hostage on a bus and another took a police officer. Both acts prove that Ukrainian society is angered by economic and political crisis dominating the country. The majority of the population hates the regime and Zelenskyy is not a president with full authority. The real dictators are the US, British, Canadian and Polish secret services, which murdered their opponents in 2014. Many people in Ukraine are threatened openly and they are afraid of standing up to anything. Thus, societal dissatisfaction finds a way to materialize, for instance in the form of terrorist acts.

Disproof

Recurring disinformation about socio-economic situation in Ukraine, Euromaidan and Ukrainian governance. The Euromaidan demonstrations started in Kyiv in November 2013. They emerged organically as a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn on the highly anticipated EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, which had been under negotiation for seven years. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim here. Ukraine is a sovereign country. Ukraine's allies are focused on realising and strengthening a stable, democratic, prosperous and free Ukraine, more closely integrated into Europe and Euro-Atlantic structures. Russia is, in fact, violating territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine with continuous acts of aggression by the Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014. According to World Bank data, the Ukrainian economy grew steadily between 2016 and 2019. Ukrstat states that average monthly income has also increased gradually in past years. The unemployment rate is also down from 10.1% in Q1 2017 to 8.5% in Q1 2020. While the ruling party's popularity is down to 30.7% according to Europe Elects, it is still by far the most popular political force in the country. Thus, nothing suggests that there would be widespread popular discontent in the country that would lead to a series of terrorist acts and a new "Maidan". The two events discussed in the News Front article did indeed take place. A gunman took 13 hostages on a bus in Lutsk and only let the hostages go once President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video on Facebook endorsing a 2005 animal rights documentary. In another, unrelated case, a crime suspect took a police officer captive with a grenade. However, these do not indicate that a new Maidan would be coming.

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News Front - Hungarian (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 207
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 26/07/2020
  • Outlet language(s) Hungarian
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Keywords: Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian disintegration, Ukrainian statehood, Euromaidan
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Disproof

An example of many disinformation claims about the White Helmets. Pro-Kremlin media routinely accuse the White Helmets of “working for terrorists” and being a creation of the Western intelligence services. No evidence is given to support these claims. The "White Helmets" movement originated in Syria in 2012, when the first detachments of volunteer rescuers appeared in the territories outside the control of Bashar al-Assad's troops. In 2014, volunteer teams merged into a national organisation, the Syrian Civil Defence, which is the official name of the 'White Helmets'. Volunteers save people from the rubble after bombings, despite the danger to themselves as a result of repeated airstrikes. Activists from this organisation have documented the use of chemical weapons in Syria by the Assad government and allied forces. Because of this, they have become the target of an extensive Russian disinformation campaign. Read previous disinformation claims alleging that evidence confirms chemical attacks in Syria were falsified by the White Helmets, and that the chemical attacks in Syria have been staged and filmed by the media of the Western countries.

US Democratic Party is trying to eliminate Orthodoxy

The US Democratic Party decided to use the Patriarchate of Constantinople for its corporate purposes, for the collapse of the Orthodox world as an incomprehensible and alien identity, of mainly Eastern European countries. Orthodoxy as a part of national identity is interpreted by the Democratic Party as a threat that must be eliminated.

Jul 24, 2020
Disproof

No evidence given. Conspiracy theory and recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative alleging that the US is trying to split the Orthodox world. The Democratic Party does not use, nor plan to use, the Constantinople Patriarchy for its own purposes, it is not trying to eliminate Orthodox Christianity. Civil rights is one of the cornerstones of the US and the Democratics. The party pledges that it will "always fight to end discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability." See similar disinformation cases alleging that the US stands behind the pressure upon the Serbian church of Montenegro, that the Greek church recognised Ukrainian autocephaly under pressure, that Ukrainian autocephaly s a tool to split the Orthodox world, that the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is a tool for the neoliberal globalists and that US pushes Belarusian authorities towards talks over split from Russian Orthodox church.

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Jul 24, 2020
Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's statehood which claims that the Euromaidan protests were a coup d'etat.

There was no coup d’état in 2014. The spontaneous onset of massive Euromaidan protests was a reaction of the Ukrainian population to the sudden departure of President Yanukovych from the Association Agreement with the European Union and to the brutal dispersal of student protest actions on 30 November 2013.