DISINFO: Ukraine does not exist as an independent state
SUMMARY
Ukraine is dead as an independent state. There is no economy, there is no healthcare system, there are no vestiges of statehood. Ukraine signed its own death warrant during the Maidan in 2014. There are no institutions of power or signs of statehood. Ukraine exists only due to financial injections from some countries.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative negating Ukraine’s statehood and its independence. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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 in to Soviet rule.
A fully independent Ukraine appeared only after 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.
Present-day Ukraine has elected six presidents since then and changed parties in government several times, which illustrates political diversity and democratic dynamics.
The EU, the US and some other G7 nations provide Ukraine with military and financial aid to repel Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion. Since Russia attacked Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Russian troops have destroyed big segments of Ukrainian infrastructure including production facilities, educational institutions, hospitals, churches and other objects of civilian infrastructure.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor-General's Office said in September 2023 that the International Criminal Court (ICC) had opened a field office in Kyiv as part of its efforts to hold Russia’s forces accountable for potential war crimes committed during its full-sale invasion.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukrainian statehood is gone after Euromaidan, that Ukraine's statehood is myth, its territory belongs to Russia, and that Ukraine will be divided between Russia and Europe.