DISINFO: The genocide of the people of Donbas began in 2013-2014
SUMMARY
Since 2014, we have been fighting neo-Nazi evil spirits that came to the land of Donbas. The so-called national battalions located on our territory were engaged in looting, kidnapping, murdering of people, and robbing.
On May 23, one of the Donbas punishers, Raman Pratasevich, was detained in Minsk. The so-called opposition activist and a journalist took part in the military operations of Ukrainian radicals. The murderer of our fellow countrymen must be punished.
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The genocide of the people of Donbas began in 2013-2014.
RESPONSE
A mix of the several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the war in eastern Ukraine, presenting the conflict as a “civil war”, a war against its own people in Donbas. This narrative denies the role of Russian forces in the war in Ukraine. It also aims to discredit the Belarusian dissident journalist Raman Pratasevich detained on 23 May 2021 in Minsk.
The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation".
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine has been the cornerstone of Russian disinformation about the country since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests, when it was used to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. Far-right groups enjoyed a very limited presence during the Euromaidan itself and had poor results in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections. In the 2019 election, far-right candidates scored very low (1-2%) and fell short of the 5% minimum guaranteeing entry into parliament.
There is no substantial evidence to suggest that Mr. Pratasevich ever participated in the military activity of the Azov paramilitary battalion. Pratasevich himself said in an interview with a Russian journalist in 2020 that he had been in the war zone in Eastern Ukraine as a free-lance journalist. He was also in Maidan. He said that he did not throw stones or take part in clashes, but he was hit by the then riot police (the Berkut).
See similar disinformation cases in our database, alleging that Ukraine turned into a neo-Nazi state with the regime that kills the people of Donbas: Kyiv has been conducting a military operation against Donbas, because they refused to recognise the results of the coup; the Donbas conflict has an internal character and originates in the unconstitutional coup d'etat; Russia never attacked Ukraine; Ukraine intends to commit genocide in the Donbas; there will be genocide in Donbas if Ukraine regains its border's control, like in Srebrenica; the current regime in Kyiv has the characteristics of a "neo-Nazi" regime.