DISINFO: Russia does not want to destroy Ukraine, it protects Donbas
SUMMARY
Russia is not trying to destroy Ukraine. Russia is fulfilling its sacred duty to protect the residents of Donbas, who did not want to be in the post-imperialist state of Ukraine and declared their rights to the legitimacy of their authorities after the illegitimate coup in Kyiv. The Ukrainian army was used against them, which contradicted the Constitution of Ukraine at that time. The fact that Russia defends the right of nations to self-determination, enshrined in UN documents, does not mean that it is trying to destroy Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative trying to justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Top Russian officials and propagandists have repeatedly said that Russia's aim is either to destroy or to dismantle Ukraine. Putin launched his brutal large-scale aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 under false pretexts including the protection of the Russian-speaking population there from an alleged Ukrainian genocide. There was no state coup in Ukraine in 2014. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was an organic reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013, after he had promised to sign it.
After the Euromaidan in Kyiv in February 2014, local separatists announced the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of Ukraine with the support of Moscow-backed mercenaries. The European Union stated in July 2014 that “arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation”. At the NATO Summit in Wales in September 2014, NATO leaders condemned in the strongest terms Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine and demanded that Russia stop and withdraw its forces from Ukraine and along the country’s border.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Kiev launched a war against the Donbas after Euromaidan, that 10 years ago the West turned Ukraine into a weapon against Russia, and that The West is guilty for the Donbas war and subsequent events.