DISINFO: Euromaidan ended with a coup d'état that removed Yanukovych from power
SUMMARY
Euromaidan ended with a real coup d'état that removed Yanukovych from power, to replace him (without consulting the electorate and without free elections) with Oleksandr Turchynov. The coup solution to the crisis did not gain the approval of the inhabitants of Crimea, nor of the eastern part of Ukraine, called Donbas. In fact, in March 2014, a referendum was called on the self-determination of Crimea, to return to Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the 2013–14 protests in Kyiv culminating in the Revolution of Dignity portrayed as a coup d'état, and about the illegal annexation of Crimea, claiming that it is a legitimate act of the Crimean people.
Pro-Kremlin outlets falsely portray the Euromaidan revolution in 2023-2014 as a coup d'état. This is one of the most prominent pro-Kremlin disinformation tropes that has been well documented.
The popular demonstrations began in Kyiv in November of 2013 and brought hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians to the streets. The protest was against a political decision of Viktor Yanukovych’s government, which at the last minute withdrew from a long-negotiated political association and free trade agreement with the EU, choosing instead to accept a $15 billion economic bailout to Russia.
The 21 February 2014 agreement laid out a plan in which the Rada, or Parliament, would pass a bill to return Ukraine to its 2004 Constitution, thus returning the country to a constitutional system centred around its parliament. Under the terms of the agreement, Yanukovych was to sign the enacting legislation within 24 hours and bring the crisis to a peaceful conclusion. Yanukovych refused to keep his end of the bargain. Instead, he packed up his home and fled, leaving behind evidence of wide-scale corruption.
After Yanukovych fled Ukraine, even his own Party of Regions turned against him, voting to confirm his withdrawal from office and to support the new government. Ukraine’s interim government led by Oleksandr Turchynov, which shepherded the country toward democratic elections on May 25th 2014, was approved by the democratically elected Ukrainian Parliament, with 371 votes – more than an 82% majority.
Crimea is internationally recognised as Ukrainian territory according to international law. On the basis of the Budapest Memorandum, signed in 1994, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for a guarantee of its territorial integrity and political independence from Russia, the US, and the UK. No international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea in 2014. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea. In response to the annexation, the EU has imposed restrictive measures against Russia. Read more about the EU's policy about Crimea here.
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