>>18414219Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about Euromaidan portraying the 2013-14 Ukrainian revolution as a coup d'etat orchestrated by the West, and Ukrainian politics and society as dominated by Nazi/fascist ideology. An attempt to justify the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
There was no coup d’état in Kyiv in 2014; this is a longstanding pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about Ukraine's Euromaidan. The spontaneous onset of the Euromaidan protests was a reaction by numerous segments of the Ukrainian population to former president Viktor Yanukovych’s sudden departure from the promised Association Agreement with the European Union in November 2013.
Nazi and Communist ideologies were banned by Ukrainian law in 2015. Far-right groups had a very limited presence during the protests and went on to obtain abysmal results during the 2019 election cycle. The highest-rated nationalist candidate, Ruslan Koshulynskyy, won 1.62% of the vote whereas Svoboda won 2.16% of the national vote, falling far short of the 5% minimum guaranteeing entry into parliament.
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on multiple fronts, as footage, foreign correspondents, social media, local journalists and citizen witnesses have proven beyond any doubt. Russian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a special military operation against Ukraine citing NATO’s military infrastructure approaching the Russian border as a pretext. Another pretext for the so-called operation is “demilitarization and denazification” of Ukraine according to official Russian statements. The invasion was followed by airstrikes on military objects. Russian troops later started bombing and shelling civilian targets as well.
