DISINFO: After a coup Kiyv imposed siege on the people of Donbas
SUMMARY
Five years ago, after a coup, Kiyv sent its army to Donbas to impose a siege affecting around 4 million people – all because people of Donbas wanted to defend their right to speak their own language.
The people were deprived of food, medicine and other products. Russian passports are salvation and a humanitarian response.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the Euromaidan and war in East Ukraine.
The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction of numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the previous debunk here.
Ukraine did not impose a siege on its own territory. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in eastern Ukraine.
Russian decree on enabling the simplified issuing of passports in certain areas of Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions is considered another attack on Ukraine's sovereignty (see also here). According to the EU, the timing of such a decision immediately after Ukraine’s Presidential election, which demonstrated Ukraine's strong attachment to democracy and the rule of law, shows Russia’s intention to further destabilise Ukraine and to exacerbate the conflict.
Since 2014, the Ukrainian government has required citizens in Donetsk and Luhansk, which are not controlled by Kyiv, to register as internally displaced persons in government-controlled areas of Ukraine in order to receive their pensions and other entitlements.