DISINFO: Crimean residents voted in a referendum to return Crimea to Russia after a coup in Ukraine in 2014
SUMMARY
The US and its NATO allies have made the military strengthening of Poland and the nearby Baltic states a priority since the 2014 coup in Ukraine, after which Crimean residents voted in a referendum to return Crimea to Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Ukraine's Euromaidan and the illegal referendum in Crimea.
There was no coup in Ukraine. The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013, called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan", were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU as a result of Russian pressure.
Crimea is an internationally recognised part of Ukraine. Іn 1997, by signing the Friendship Agreement with Ukraine, Russia recognised that Crimea officially belongs to Ukraine.
The so-called referendum was organised hastily and at gunpoint following the covert invasion of “little green men” and barring impartial observers from entering the peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin even recognised and also admitted proudly that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
The referendum offered two choices: join Russia or return to Crimea’s 1992 constitution, which gave the peninsula significant autonomy. Those who favoured Crimea remaining part of Ukraine under the current constitution had no box to check.
Local authorities reported a turnout of 83%, with 96.7% voting to join Russia. The numbers seemed implausible, given that ethnic Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars accounted for almost 40% of the peninsula’s population. (Two months later, a leaked report from the Russian president’s Human Rights Council put turnout at only 30 %, with about half of those voting to join Russia.)
No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea. The UN resolution stated that the referendum was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order. In response to the illegal annexation of Crimea, the EU has imposed restrictive measures against the Russian Federation. In June 2021, the European Council decided to renew the sanctions introduced in response to the illegal annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol by the Russian Federation until 23 June 2022.
See similar disinformation cases claiming that Euromaidan protests were organised by foreign governments: Gauleiter Biden and the US were behind the Orange revolution 2004 and the coup of 2014; Obama staged a coup in Ukraine, allowing Nazis to assume power; the US organised a coup in 2014 in Kyiv and now wants Ukraine to start a war against Russia.