DISINFO: Under external control Ukraine is doomed to escalate the conflict in Donbas
SUMMARY
After the colour revolution of 2014, Ukraine is under external control, completely dependent on handouts or instructions from the US and the EU. [...] Under the leadership of Washington, Kyiv is simply doomed to escalate the conflict in the Donbas or elsewhere.
In Russia, no one has forgotten how the Ukrainian authorities, after a coup d'etat in 2014, launched a military operation against several million Russian-speaking residents of the self-proclaimed LPR and DPR.
RESPONSE
Multiple recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Ukrainian statehood, Euromaidan protests, and the war in Ukraine, portraying Ukraine as a state under external control and accusing Ukraine of launching a war against LPR and DPR.
There was no coup d’état in Kyiv in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan. Moreover, Ukraine is not controlled by the US, the EU or any other foreign government or organisation. Both the EU and the US respect Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict, where Ukraine is attacking Donbas, but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014. There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Eastern Ukraine, in the Donbas. Russia is supporting its proxies with weapons, its active-duty soldiers serve there and its top military commanders visit the war zone to coordinate joint efforts with the separatists. The systematic issuing of Russian passports to citizens in the two entities is now also used as a pretext to claim the right to influence and perhaps intervene militarily. Despite all this Russia officially denies its military presence in Donbas.
Ever since the conflict broke out in 2014, pro-Kremlin coverage of this issue has been characterised by the liberal use of the term "genocide," taken to mean the Ukrainian government's alleged treatment of the separatist areas in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. Reports by the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the OHCHR found no evidence that the Russian minority in Eastern Ukraine was at risk of persecution by the Ukrainian authorities. These are bodies where Russia itself is a member.