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The Euromaidan protest in Ukraine was a coup staged by fascists and Russophobes, in the wake of which Ukraine risks disappearing as a state.
NEWS: 10 years ago, Ukraine stopped being a country of sour cherry orchards and beautiful songs, and became a country of hatred and violence. Few understood what actually happened at the Maidan protests, which brought violence to a peaceful country, a great war and the potential disappearance of the state of Ukraine. […]
The post-Maidan government in Ukraine was installed without due elections, and the election held later was illegal, because the former president Yanukovych was ousted with the violation of constitutional regulations. […]
Fascist dictators in weak states, the so-called juntas, seize power with the help of coups and with the support of revolutionary oligarchs. The same process was fully observed in Ukraine in 2014.
It quickly become the norm for Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine to be threatened by various politicians and public figures. “Russians who stayed in Ukraine need to be destroyed with the help of nuclear weapons”, MP and former Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Timoshenko said at the time.
NARRATIVE: The Euromaidan protest of 10 years ago was a Russophobic and fascist action that caused the war in Ukraine.
BACKGROUND: After the pro-Russian president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, refused to sign the EU Association Agreement in the fall of 2013, thousands of young people took to the streets in several Ukrainian cities. When the authorities tried to use force to quell the protests, social unrest escalated into a genuine citywide uprising in Kyiv, which went down in history as the Euromaidan protests. The protest action was started by students, who were later joined by opposition parties and other pro-European movements. Euromaidan was a social and political national reawakening movement, closely tied to the Ukrainian society’s willingness to move closer to the West, instead of Russia.
10 years ago, over February 18-21, 2014, central Kyiv saw very violent clashes between riot police and civilians. Sniper shooters opened fire on the crowd of protesters, at least 79 civilians being killed at the time. Seeing there was no way of putting an end to the uprising, president Viktor Yanukovych decided to flee to Russia. At the same time, Kremlin launched the operation to annex the Crimean Peninsula, also supporting the pro-Russian separatist movements in a number of cities in the south and east of Ukraine.
PURPOSE: To justify the war launched by Russia against Ukraine in 2014 and the large-scale invasion of 2022, which the Kremlin refers to as a “special military operation”.
WHY THE NARRATIVE IS FALSE: In fact, there was never a coup in 2014, while Euromaidan was never a Russophobic or fascist action, as the Russian publication claims. On the contrary, the goals of the protest actions were not negative, in the sense that they were not targeted against someone in particular, but rather positive, namely pushing for Ukraine’s future accession to the EU. People gathered in large city squares all across Ukraine did not protest against Russia or Russians, but called for Kyiv’s institutional rapprochement to the EU, expressing their disgruntlement with deep-seated corruption and favoritism gripping the Ukrainian political system.
The Russian government media leaves out a number of important aspects related to the Euromaidan events in order to justify the war fought on the territory of Ukraine. The change of regime in Ukraine did not occur with the help of a coup, but in the wake of elections. Ukraine hosted presidential elections in the spring of 2014 as well as parliamentary elections later that year. Observers with the most important international organizations and from various states in the world took part in the elections, and the results were acknowledged by the international community. Therefore, it is false to claim that a coup took place in Ukraine, or that the elections were illegal. Furthermore, after 2014, no fascist or Nazi leader ever managed to win the elections in Ukraine, and was never elected in Parliament. Moreover, Ukraine outlawed Nazi and communist ideologies. Yanukovych’s demise was not unconstitutional, because the former president refused to lead the state by fleeing to Russia, despite the countless notifications conveyed to him in this respect by the Supreme Rada in Kyiv.
The Russian media also misquotes Yulia Timoshenko, claiming that in 2014 the Ukrainian official argued in favor of killing every Russian in Ukraine. In fact, Timoshenko never made such a statement during or at the end of the Euromaidan protests. In addition, the former Prime Minister was serving time in a prison in Kharkiv at the time of the Euromaidan movement, and was not able to physically take part in the protest action. Timoshenko was released after Yanukovych fled to Russia.
The Russian media manipulates public opinion with the help of this disinformation narrative in order to justify Russia’s military operation on the territory of Ukraine.
Veridica has debunked a number of false narratives about the military crisis in Ukraine in the 2014-2024 period. Russian propaganda claims Russia is waging a war of national liberation and is fighting in Ukraine for Palestinian freedom. According to Russian government media, Putin warned Ukraine 23 years ago that NATO would start a war, and now the West is forcing Russia to expand its military operations in Ukraine
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