DISINFO: The US organised a coup in Ukraine in 2014 with the help of Europe
SUMMARY
The US organised the coup in Ukraine in 2014 and Europe backed it. Many countries were forced to choose between being with the collective West or with Russia, it was an ultimatum. The consequences of this aggressive policy can be seen in the example of the Ukrainian tragedy, where an unconstitutional coup took place in 2014. Why did the US organise this coup and why did European countries back it, leading to the split of Ukraine and the separation of Crimea?
RESPONSE
Several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the Euromaidan protests, the illegal annexation of Crimea and the war in Ukraine.
There was no coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan protests. The spontaneous onset of these protests was an organic 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 2013. See the full debunk of this disinformation claim here.
Fatigue from corruption, pressure on business, voluntary or forced closures, dissatisfaction with the government's economic policy - for many Euromaidan participants, these reasons also became motives for joining the protests.
Contrary to the claim, the separatist rebellion in Donbas (described in this disinformation story as “the split of Ukraine”) and Russia’s annexation of Crimea didn’t happen because of the government change in Kyiv but were due to the actions of the Russian Federation, who launched a military invasion of the Crimean peninsula and engineered the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine is a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014. And there is not a single international body that recognises Crimea’s illegal annexation, neither the UN nor the EU. On the seventh anniversary of Crimea's annexation, the EU reiterated its position of non-recognition of illegal annexation and continues to stand in full solidarity with Ukraine, supporting its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
A year after the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin (proudly) admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
See other examples in our database, such as the claims that a far-right coup government in Kyiv emerged from the 2014 Maidan uprising, that the US spent $5 billion on the Ukrainian Maidan, that Russian-Ukrainian relations deteriorated because of the coup, that Maidan led to a referendum that united Crimea with Russia, or that Russia has no soldiers in Ukraine but NATO sends arms to Kyiv.