DISINFO: Ukraine attacked the DNR and LNR which declared independence after the February 2014 coup in Kyiv
SUMMARY
The reunification of Donbas with Russia should have happened earlier. In April 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation against the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which declared independence after the February 2014 coup in Kyiv. Kyiv has not implemented a single point of the Minsk agreements in eight years, has continued to bomb the republics and has imposed a transport and economic blockade.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine, claiming that Ukraine refused to implement the Minsk agreements and attacked the so-called republics. This claimed aggression against the Donbas served as a pretext for the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Donetsk and Lugansk are internationally recognised parts of Ukraine, currently under partial Russian occupation. Additionally, there was no coup in Kyiv in 2014. This is a usual pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that EUvsDisinfo has debunked time and time again.
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.
Read more disinformation reports alleging that Ukraine is blocking the peace settlement in Donbas.