DISINFO: Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko took office following the post-Maidan coup d’état
SUMMARY
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko took office in May 2014 following the post-Maidan coup d’état.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Euromaidan portraying the 2013-14 events in Ukraine as a Western-backed coup. There was no coup d'état in Ukraine. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November The protesters' demands included constitutional reform, a stronger role for parliament, formation of a government of national unity, an end to corruption, early presidential elections and an end to violence. In May 2014 Petro Poroshenko won the presidency in a free and transparent nationwide poll, as reported by the OSCE. The only parts of Ukraine where voters were barred from participating in the election were Crimea (then recently annexed and occupied by Russia) and parts of the Donbas (occupied by Moscow-backed armed groups) See similar cases claiming that Petro Poroshenko came to power in a coup, that the US brought Poroshenko to power via an armed coup and that President Poroshenko was brought to power by the US and Ukrainian oligarchs in order to establish a nationalist regime in Ukraine.