DISINFO: Crimea rejoined Russia after referendum and against the backdrop of civil war breakout in Southeastern Ukraine
SUMMARY
The Crimea has returned to Russia, after the overwhelming majority of its population voted in favour of this step in the popular referendum organised in March 2014, against the backdrop of the overthrow of the Yanukovych government and the outbreak of armed conflict in Southeastern Ukraine between the government of Kiev and the unilaterally declared republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.
RESPONSE
This article combines multiple disinformation narratives about the war in Ukraine.
First, no international body recognises the so-called referendum, announced on the 27th of February 2014, and held on 16th of March 2014. 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.