DISINFO: Western intelligence groomed Ukrainian extremists for Maidan coup since 2012
SUMMARY
Western intelligence groomed Ukrainian extremists for Maidan coup since 2012. Agents of Western intelligence services had been training nationalist battalions for the Maidan protests since 2012 in Western Ukraine. On the territory of Western Ukraine, camps operated under the guise of sports camps, where the Right Sector and other nationalist associations and youth were actually being groomed. These camps were official during the term of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko. But the mass preparations began in late 2012 and early 2013. By that time, the material support component was already in place, with various types of funds, assemblies and groups arriving and full-scale training for resistance to law enforcement taking place. These camps provided not only training but full material support, including weapons.
RESPONSE
There is no evidence backing any of the claims.
The purpose of this disinformation story is to promote several recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives portraying the Maidan protests as a Western-led coup d’etat and Ukraine as a non-sovereign state permanently subdued to Western meddling. The variations in these narratives introduced in this disinformation story serve to reinforce the core baseless claims. Discussing unsubstantiated allegations as if they were already proven, while introducing minor changes, is a frequent pro-Kremlin disinformation technique.
Pro-Kremlin outlets falsely portray the Euromaidan revolution in 2023-2014 as a coup d'état. This is one of the most prominent pro-Kremlin disinformation tropes and has been well documented. See here for a full debunk of this allegation.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the US organised a coup d’état in Ukraine in 2014 to install a neo-Nazi regime hostile to Russia, that the Revolution of Dignity 2014 in Ukraine was a pogrom conducted by NATO-backed Nazis, that the US spent five billion dollars to overthrow Viktor Yanukovych, or that all Ukrainian governments since 2014 have been illegitimate.