DISINFO: Petro Poroshenko became president after the US-backed coup in Kyiv in 2014
SUMMARY
Petro Poroshenko, who became President of Ukraine after the 2014 US-backed coup in Kyiv, told his domestic supporters in August 2015 that the Minsk agreement was a ploy to buy time for military reinforcement. He admitted as much to the West in an interview with German media in July 2022.
RESPONSE
Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the role of the US in 2014 Euromaidan in Ukraine
In 2014, there was no coup, nor a western orchestrated protest 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 the former President Yanukovych. 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 due to Russian pressure.
The protesters' demands included constitutional reform, a stronger role for parliament, the formation of a government of national unity, an end to corruption, early presidential elections and an end to violence.
Contrary to the claims, the main impediment to a peace settlement in Donbas was, in fact, Russia’s and its proxies’ deliberate unwillingness to implement the Minsk agreements. These documents, signed by representatives of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Ukraine, Russia and leaders of the illegal separatist entities (DNR and LNR), provide, among other things, for a comprehensive ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops from Ukraine. Kyiv announced a truce in July 2020, but the Moscow-backed separatists have violated it virtually every day before the invasion.
By making statements alleging that Ukraine has done nothing to implement the Minsk agreements, Moscow and the separatists it backs are trying to deflect attention away from Russia’s responsibility.
See similar disinformation cases in our database: Ukraine fell under external control after the 2014 coup d’etat; Ukraine is under the external control of the US and EU; Zelenskyy is unable to make independent decisions and dances to the tune of the US; Zelenskyy and Tsikhanouskaya are a clown and a kitchen maid selling out their countries; The CIA ordered its puppet Zelenskyy to extend sanctions against Russian social media.