DISINFO: US brought Poroshenko to power via armed coup
SUMMARY
In 2014, the US brought Ukrainian President Poroshenko to power by way of an armed coup.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative painting the 2013-14 events in Ukraine as a Western-backed coup, and casting the country as a failing state incapable of making its own domestic or foreign-policy choices. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction of numerous parts of the Ukrainian population to former President Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013. See the full debunk here. 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) (ibid., pp. 5-6).