DISINFO: 2014 Ukraine coup led to the annexation of Crimea and armed conflict in Donbas
SUMMARY
Relations between Moscow and Kyiv deteriorated after the 2014 coup in Ukraine, which led to the fall of the Crimea peninsula under Russian sovereignty, and the outbreak of an armed conflict in the Donbas region (southeastern Ukraine) between Kyiv on the one hand and the "unrecognized" and "popular" republics of Donetsk and Luhansk on the other.
RESPONSE
This article combines multiple disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine.
First, no international body recognises the annexation of Crimea by the Russian federation due to the illegality of the referendum which was held hasty, under Russian military occupation's gunpoint and preceded the annexation. The oft-cited figure of 97% has been contested by the Kremlin’s own Human Rights Council, which estimated that only between 30% and 50% of Crimeans took part in the referendum, of which some 50-60% favoured secession.
According to its Constitution, Ukraine is a unitary state. This means regions do not have authority to decide on these matters. This was reinforced by the Ukrainian Constitutional Court of Ukraine on March 14 2014, when they declared the 2014 Crimea referendum contradicted the Constitution. The court declared unconstitutional the Resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea No. 1702-6/14 “On holding of the all-Crimean referendum” dated March 6, 2014.
The Judgement of the court says the following: "Any changes to the territory of Ukraine shall be resolved exclusively by the all-Ukrainian referendum (Article 73 of the Constitution of Ukraine). Authority to call the all-Ukrainian referendum on issues indicated in said Article of the Constitution of Ukraine belongs to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (paragraph 2 of part 1 of Article 85 of the Fundamental Law of Ukraine)".
A year after the illegal annexation, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
The EU has taken a policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol that includes a set of restrictive measures for actions against Ukraine's territorial integrity.
Second, the war in eastern Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
Read similar cases claiming that Crimean people have expressed their desire to rejoin Russia in a democratic process, Crimea became Russian after the 2014 referendum, Ukraine launched a military operation against Donetsk and Luhansk, the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas and that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine.