DISINFO: The Ukrainian government provoked the war in Donbas
SUMMARY
The Ukrainian regime provoked the war in the Donbas region after its people rebelled against the coup in Kiev in 2014, which brought extremists with hostile feelings towards Russia to power in Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation about the war in Ukraine. It was Russia that provoked a war in Ukraine, and not the Ukrainian government. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine.The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when 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.Furthermore, according to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), Russian special forces and troops operated to mobilise, lead, equip, and support separatist militias in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine from spring 2014 to the present, although their presence was denied by Moscow. Overwhelming evidence confirms that Russia participates in the conflict with Ukraine sending mercenaries to Donbas.
In an interview, delivered in autumn 2018, former First Deputy Chief Monitor to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation's Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine Alexander Hug mentions that the Mission has been recording the instances of Russia's involvement into the war in Donbas. "We have been seeing at least in six instances convoys leaving and entering Ukraine, which we have been documenting, which have been driving towards the unsecure border with the Russian Federation in the middle of the night, on dirt roads, and have been seen at the unsecure border at areas where there is no official border crossing," Hug said.