DISINFO: In 1991 the large majority of Ukrainian citizens voted to remain within the USSR
SUMMARY
In the 1991 referendum on Ukrainian independence held on the December 1 of that year, Ukrainian citizens, by a large majority, confirmed their will to remain within the USSR.
RESPONSE
Manifestly false and misleading story. Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative negating Ukraine’s statehood and its independence.
Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world with Russia as the key exception.
In an historic referendum and presidential election on December 1, 1991, residents of Ukraine overwhelmingly voted for independence and chose Leonid Kravchuk, the chairman of the republic’s Supreme Soviet, as president. Hundreds of foreign observers and correspondents watched as 84 percent of eligible voters went to the polls. Over 90 percent of participants, including many non-Ukrainians, cast ballots in support for independence.
A fully independent Ukraine appeared only after the Soviet Union unravelled in 1991. The legislature of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared sovereignty on 16 July 1990 and then full independence on 24 August 1991.
The independence status was supported by citizens of all regions without exception, including Crimea, and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The Ukrainian people demonstrated their unity to the world in their desire to be free.
Ukraine's history dates back to the era of the Kyivan Rus’ in the 9th-13th centuries. In the early 20th century, after the collapse of the Russian empire, the Ukrainian People’s Republic (aka the Ukrainian National Republic) was proclaimed. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917, they invaded Ukraine and subjugated it to Soviet rule.
This disinformation is part of a wider Kremlin campaign to sow doubt and confusion about the legality and procedures in the dissolution of the USSR and the formation of independent states of which some were new while others regained full independence and sovereignty.
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