DISINFO: The US staged a coup d'etat in Ukraine and eliminated democratic institutions
SUMMARY
The United States, having discarded all humanistic principles, staged a coup d'etat in Ukraine, eliminated democracy, and imposed a junta that pursues a policy of state terrorism. They shot 100 people during the Maidan and shot down a Malaysian Boeing [over Donbas].
RESPONSE
Multiple recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Ukraine, Euromaidan, and the downing of the flight MH-17. This narrative alleges that the Euromaidan protests in Ukraine are a part of the Western-backed colour revolutions.
The US did not stage the protests in 2013-2014; there was no coup in Ukraine. The demonstrations which began in Kyiv in November 2013, called "Maidan", or "Euromaidan", were a result of the Ukrainian people's frustration with former President Yanukovych's last-minute U-turn when, after seven years of negotiation, he refused to sign the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement and halted progress towards Ukraine's closer relationship with the EU as a result of Russian pressure.
The Dutch-led criminal investigation by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has been ongoing since 2014. By September 2016, the JIT established that flight MH17 was shot down by a missile from the 9M38 series, which was launched by a BUK TELAR missile system. The system was transported from the Russian Federation to an agricultural field near the town of Pervomaiskyi in Eastern Ukraine, from where the missile was launched. After firing, the system, with 1 missing missile, went back to the Russian Federation. On 24 May 2018, the JIT announced its conclusion that the BUK TELAR used to shoot down MH17 came from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, a unit of the Russian armed forces from Kursk in the Russian Federation. On the basis of the investigation conducted by the JIT, consisting of law enforcement agencies from Australia, Belgium, Malaysia, Ukraine, and the Netherlands, the Dutch Public Prosecution Service is prosecuting Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, Sergey Nikolayevich Dubinskiy, Oleg Yuldashevich Pulatov, and Leonid Volodymyrovych Kharchenko for causing the crash of the MH17 and the murder of 298 persons on board. The Public Prosecution Service alleges the four cooperated to obtain and deploy the BUK TELAR at the firing location with the aim of shooting down an aircraft. The latest on the trial, which began in the Netherlands in March 2020, can be seen here.
See similar disinformation cases claiming that Euromaidan protests were organised by foreign governments: gauleiter Biden and the US were behind the Orange revolution 2004 and the coup of 2014; Obama staged a coup in Ukraine, allowing Nazis to assume power; the US organised a coup in 2014 in Kyiv and now wants Ukraine to start a war against Russia.