DISINFO: Russia was prevented from ending the civil war in Ukraine peacefully
SUMMARY
Russia will no longer allow itself to be deceived. The Minsk and Istanbul agreements were thwarted to prevent Russia from quickly ending the civil war in Ukraine peacefully.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine and its allies provoked Russia into launching its unjustified aggression against Ukraine.
The Minsk Agreements required, among other things, a complete ceasefire and elections in the territories temporarily under Russian military control, according to Ukrainian legislation. Leaders of the illegal self-proclaimed separatist entities in the non-government controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine (the so-called LNR/DNR) were firing at Ukrainian positions and civilian objects virtually every day, which made a ceasefire impossible. They were constantly violating the truce which Kyiv announced in July 2020. Moscow was actively aiding separatist leaders by supplying them with arms and sending troops to the region. Ukrainian legislation bans the holding of elections in the presence of foreign troops, so Putin’s refusal to withdraw from the occupied parts of Ukraine was a major obstacle to the peace process.
Additionally, the war in eastern Ukraine was not a civil conflict, but a well-documented act of aggression by the Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
Finally, it was Putin’s personal decision to invade Ukraine and start the largest military conflict in Europe since WWII.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Russia attacked Ukraine because Kyiv broke the Minsk agreements, that Ukraine itself is to blame for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Russia does everything to stop the Ukrainian war unleashed by the West, and that Putin launched the special military operation in Ukraine to protect the Russian populations of Donbas.