Russian propagandists are using a recent Le Monde article about former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko possibly using his military activities as a campaign slogan in the upcoming elections as a military coup plan. The article does not mention any such plans or make any assumptions about him preparing a military coup in Ukraine.
Referring to the article in Le Monde, Russian propagandists claim that the former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko is allegedly preparing a military coup in Ukraine. The article focuses on the 206th territorial defense battalion, which Petro Poroshenko began supporting at the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Pro-Kremlin media interpret this support as preparation for a “military coup in Ukraine”. This fake was circulated by Ukraina.ru, Tsargrad, News Front and several pro-Russian Telegram channels.
The Le Monde article recounts the story of former President Petro Poroshenko and current President Volodymyr Zelensky’s political battles and the military experience that the former president’s close entourage is gaining at the battlefield. Russian media refer to the 206th territorial defense battalion as “Poroshenko’s battalion” and suggest that it is directly subordinate to him. The battalion in fact include up to 20 political figures who support the former president, such as former Security and Defense Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov and former Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko. The latter, despite Russian media claims, notes that the name “Poroshenko’s battalion” is not entirely correct, because the war is fought “for values and principles.” Pavlo Tuka, one of the 206th battalion’s company commanders even says in the article that he reports directly to Vale riy Zaluzhny, the Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief. In total, the battalion only consists of 800 people. For some reason, Russian propagandists consider this number sufficient to seize power in all of Ukraine.
Le Monde does not rule out the possibility of Petro Poroshenko using his experience of serving in the territorial defense battalion in future political races. However, the article never claims that Petro Poroshenko is going to use the military to overthrow the current government. This is a fake made up by Russian propagandists to destroy unity within Ukraine and undermine trust in the Armed Forces. It is exactly to this end that the Kremlin is increasingly interpreting foreign media articles in a manipulative way.
This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has alluded to the inevitability of a military coup in Ukraine. The biggest source of such narratives is former Ukrainian parliamentarian Ilya Kiva, who fled Ukraine and is now issuing all sorts of pronouncements in support of the Russian invasion. He had already announced that Petro Poroshenko would stage a military coup in August 2020. In February 2022, Ilya Kiva predicted a coup in Ukraine if Boris Johnson resigns.
Russian media recently were busy spreading falsehoods about the majority of Ukrainian citizens allegedly choosing Russia because of Kyiv’s atrocities. Additionally, Russian collaborators in the temporarily occupied territories baselessly accused the Armed Forces of destroying churches.
