DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS
- Outlet: akhbarak.net ( archive, original ) , akhbarak.net ( archive, original ) , albidda.net ( archive, original ) , albidda.net ( archive, original ) , albidda.net ( archive, original ) , albousla.ps ( archive, original ) , albousla.ps ( archive, original ) , alhilalalyoum.com ( archive, original ) , alkhabaralgded.com ( archive, original ) , alkhabaralgded.com ( archive, original ) , alkhabaralgded.com ( archive, original ) , almanar-tv.org ( archive, original ) , almanar.com.lb ( archive, original ) , almanartv.com.lb ( archive, original ) , arabic.rt.com ( archive, original ) , emeknes.com ( archive, original ) , eshraag.com ( archive, original ) , kol-masr.com ( archive, original ) , manartv.com.lb ( archive, original ) , news.dmcnews.org ( archive, original ) , news.dmcnews.org ( archive, original ) , saadaonline.net ( archive, original ) , saadaonline.net ( archive, original ) , sabaharabi.com ( archive, original ) , sahafahnet.net ( archive, original ) , shamra.sy ( archive, original ) , sportnewsps.com ( archive, original ) , sportnewsps.com ( archive, original ) , theworldnews.net ( archive, original ) , Wikimsrweb.com ( archive, original )
- Date of publication: May 18, 2020
- Countries / regions discussed: Ukraine, Russia
AI translations:
DISINFO: Donetsk and Luhansk authorities rejected the coup that happened in Kyiv
SUMMARY
Since 2014, Ukraine has witnessed an ongoing political and military crisis in the east of the country after the Donetsk and Luhansk region authorities announced the creation of two republics on their territories, rejecting a coup that occurred in Kyiv in February of the same year.
As a result of the coup in Kyiv, Crimea returned to Russia after a popular referendum organized on the peninsula in March 2014, through which more than 95% of the population of the peninsula voted in favour of returning to the “motherland”, but most countries of the world, primarily the Western countries, refused to recognize the results of the referendum.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative painting the Euromaidan as a coup d'etat and claiming that Crimea chose to rejoin Russia through a legal referendum.
There was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was an organic reaction by numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
On 26 February 2014, the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government. The next day a referendum was announced and a vote was held on March 16, 2014, in the Peninsula of Crimea. The territory was then controlled by Russian forces, though neither Ukrainian nor Russian election code was observed.
On 27 March 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in which it stated that the referendum in Crimea 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.
Moreover, 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 more similar cases alleging that the extreme coup in Kyiv led to the return of Crimea and that Euromaidan was a coup d’état carried out by oligarchs, in addition, thatCrimean people have expressed their desire to rejoin Russiaand even that Crimea never belonged to Ukraine. Regarding the war in eastern Ukraine, see claims that Ukraine launched a military operation against Donetsk and Luhansk and that the Euromaidan coup led to civil war in Donbas.