DISINFO: The Russian special operation protects people from genocide and persecution
SUMMARY
On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation to protect the population of the Donbas region, and Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed, after that, that Russia does not plan to occupy Ukrainian lands. He explained that Russia's goal is to protect people who have been subjected to persecution and genocide over the past 8 years by the Kyiv regime.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine and the alleged genocide of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. The genocide narrative has been an integral part of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign aiming to justify the full invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
Human rights missions that travelled to Ukraine in 2014 did not find evidence that the Russian minority would have been in danger. See, for instance, the Advisory Committee’s Ad hoc report on the situation of national minorities in Ukraine, adopted on 1 April 2014 by the Council of Europe; the June 2014 report on the human rights situation in Ukraine by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; and statement by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities on her Visit to Ukraine published on 4 April 2014.
Ukraine is not Russophobic and does not oppress or suppress those of its citizens who belong to Russian culture. Ethnic Russians, who comprise approximately 17 per cent of its overall population, enjoy the same rights as other Ukrainian citizens regardless of their ethnic origin. Articles 10 and 11 of the Constitution guarantee the free development of the languages and cultures of Ukraine’s ethnic minorities.
Furthermore, Ukraine is a signatory to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which guarantees that people in Ukraine have the right: "to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing."
See similar cases alleging that "in 2014 genocide against Russians began in Ukraine" and "Ukraine has legalised genocide against its citizens".