Relations between Russia and the West have worsened because of Ukraine where a coup has brought on a civil war, RT declared this week. The article regurgitates various tried and true Kremlin tropes, that Western countries are coming around to Russia’s side, that the Russia sanction front is weakening and that the reason for worsening relations with the West is Ukraine, where the “2014 coup led to a civil war”. The article goes on to stress that Russia is not subject to the 2014 Minsk agreements aimed at ending the war in eastern Ukraine but a guarantor of the agreements. The article also sticks to the Kremlin script regarding Crimea, declaring that “despite the open character of the Crimea referendum, the West has accused Russian of annexing Crimea and has introduced sanctions”.
The idea that by annexing Crimea and fomenting a war in eastern Ukraine Russia might be responsible for deteriorating relations with the West is not even entertained by RT.
Portraying the 2013-2014 Euromaidan protests as a coup is classic Kremlin disinformation.
In 2013 protests began in Kyiv and spread throughout Ukraine in response to the government’s decision to abandon the country’s European integration program and not sign the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union.
In February 2014 more than a hundred people were killed as a result of clashes between protesters and security forces. Then President Viktor Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada took over the leadership of the country with Oleksander Turchynov becoming acting president until new presidential elections were held in May 2014.
It is no secret to anyone other than Russia that the Donbas conflict is not an internal conflict, but a war that Russia is waging against Ukraine. International and Ukrainian organizations have published copious evidence of the presence of Russian troops in the Donbas. StopFake has also debunked many Russian civil war claims.
Since 2014 the United States, EU members and a number of other countries have introduced sanctions against Russia, sanctions which were enacted in response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia’s continued efforts to destabilize Ukraine.
