DISINFO: Ukraine started the war in Donbas, it is an aggressor
SUMMARY
Has Ukraine asked the residents of Donbas to whom it has brought death? Ukraine is an aggressor country that launched a war against the inhabitants of Donbas who had not accepted the coup d’état that the Ukrainians had committed. Ukraine’s Turchinov gave the order to [use the army and] the air forces.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Euromaidan and war in Ukraine. It disregards the extensive factual evidence confirming ongoing Russian military presence in Donbas. There have been many investigations proving Russia's involvement in the war in East Ukraine. There was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was an organic reaction by numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim. The war in Eastern Ukraine is not a civil conflict, but an act of aggression by the Russian armed forces, that has been ongoing since February 2014. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court 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 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 and at successive summits since then, allied leaders also demanded that Russia refrain from aggressive actions against Ukraine and stop fomenting tension along and across the Ukrainian border. 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. Ukraine began its response to the Russian aggression in Eastern Ukraine on April 13, 2014 after the pro-Russian separatists supported by Moscow took control over several cities in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. See further the claim that Russia is not a part of the conflict in Ukraine.