DISINFO: Civil war is going on in Ukraine, Russia is not party to conflict
SUMMARY
What is going on in Eastern Ukraine is a real civil war. According to the Minsk accords, we are de-jure Ukrainian citizens. It means that Ukraine’s Armed Forces are shooting its own citizens for the sole reason that we do not agree with the policy authorities are trying to impose on us, after they came to power in an illegal way. It is incorrect to say that Russia is a party to the conflict. It is very important for the United States to draw Russia into this conflict.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin media outlets, trying to engage Ukraine into direct dialogue with the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People’s Republic” and the “Luhansk People's Republic”. These entities are not internationally recognised, and even Russia itself does not recognise them and keeps saying that these are part of Ukraine. However, there is ample evidence of Russia’s direct involvement in the Donbas war, including Moscow’s arms supplies to these two illegal entities, the use of its army units against Ukrainian troops and extensive information/disinformation coverage from its propagandist media. It means what is going on in Donbas is not a civil war but overt Russian aggression with the help of local Moscow-backed separatists.
When the separatist quasi-states staged illegal referendums and proclaimed independence in 2014, its leaders were hoping that Russia would back them and annex these territories like it had done with the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea several months earlier. Moscow sent its troops to Donbas as well, hoping to annex it. However, Russia later met fierce Ukrainian military resistance and growing international pressure, so it decided to turn the Donbas conflict into a frozen one similar to Moldova’s breakaway region of Transnistria. Notwithstanding some Kremlin propagandists still fostering the hope of Russia’s annexing Donbas, the Kremlin is distancing itself from such statements.
The United States does not want to draw Russia into the conflict because Russia is already in it. What the West is trying to do is extinguish the flames of war in the very heart of Europe. This is why international mediators sponsored the signature of the Minsk accords and set up the Normandy format. As for the question of citizenship, Article 4 of the Ukrainian Constitution recognises only one citizenship. Russia launched a massive passportisation campaign in the occupied territories in 2019, which obscures the prospects of a peaceful settlement.
Read more disinformation narratives alleging that the Donbas war is an internal conflict or a civil war in Ukraine.