DISINFO: Ukraine committed a crime by attacking its citizens in Donbas in 2014
SUMMARY
Ukraine’s attack in Donbas is a crime against Russia. Ukraine, having started the war against Donbas in 2014, committed a crime not only against its citizens but also against Russia, which had to urgently save compatriots who were in trouble.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine, attempting to portray it as a civil war. The war in eastern Ukraine is an act of aggression by the Russian armed forces, that has continued since February 2014. The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation". At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014 and at successive summits since then, allied leaders also demanded that Russia refrain from aggressive actions against Ukraine and stop fomenting tension along and across the Ukrainian border. According to the US Defense 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.