Viktor Yanukovich and Putin:
E. Pluribus Unum: "We fomented a Ukraine revolution/coup in 2014, caused a civil war and sided with the neo-Nazis and Ukrainian nationalists that wanted to exterminate the ethnic Russian population."
Those are total Russian propaganda lies, not a word of them is true, so why would any sane person repeat them?
Here are the facts:
- There was no "coup" in 2014.
Instead, Ukraine's parliament constitutionally removed its Putin-stooge-traitor president, Yanukovich, by a vote of 328-0 and then scheduled new elections three months later.
While Yanukovich hid in Russia, he was tried and convicted of treason, in absentia. - There was no "fomenting".
Instead, Ukrainians rose up in protests after Putin-stooge-traitor Yanukovich reneged on his years-long promises to sign a new trade deal with the European Union (not NATO!).Russian Neo-Nazis in St. Petersburg, 2014:
- There were no serious "neo-Nazis" in Ukraine, any more than in many other countries, including Russia itself.
- There was no "civil war", ever, there was only ever a Russian invasion and Russians waging war against Ukraine.
- There was never a threat to "exterminate" Russians, but there were many Russians who joined Vlad the Invader's war and terror against Ukraine and so were equipped, trained and supported by Russia.
- Evidence of long-term Russian plans to seize and annex Crimea and the Donbas, include Glazyev Tapes and Surkov Leaks:
"The tapes unfortunately cover only a very small period of time – from 27 February to 3 March 2014.
It is, however, very clear even from the conversations intercepted on those days that Glazyev and Zatulin were “financing” supposedly separatist protests in Crimea, Kharkiv, Odesa and Zaporizhya.
The amounts of money mentioned are high enough to mean that this was no private venture on Glazyev’s part and easily enough to ensure a considerable number of paid ‘pro-Russian protesters’... "The Glazyev Tapes are confirmed by the Surkov Leaks which, "...confirm the Kremlin’s involvement in the armed conflict in the Donbas, and make clear that fueling the conflict in east Ukraine is just one part of Moscow’s broader policy for undermining the Ukrainian state."
Sergey Glazyev and Putin:
"The Glazyev Tapes reveal Moscow’s covert support for the still unarmed anti-government protests in Ukraine several weeks before the actual war started1.
They illustrate the Russian state’s involvement in the coordination and financing of separatist meetings, demonstrations, pickets, and similar actions in Crimea as well as in various regional capitals in Ukraine’s eastern and southern parts immediately after the victory of the Maidan revolution in early 20141.
The Glazyev Tapes provide evidence that challenges earlier interpretations concerning the roots of the so-called “Ukraine conflict” in 20141.
Until the publication of the Glazyev Tapes, many observers believed that Moscow intervened with paramilitary and later regular military forces into an ongoing civil conflict between pro-Kyiv and pro-Moscow Ukrainian citizens1.
However, the tapes suggest that the conflict was not merely a civil war, but rather a covert Russian invasion of Ukraine3.
They show that, apart from orchestrating the occupation of Crimea, Putin’s entourage called for popular uprisings in mainland Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Odesa, and Dnipro in February-March 2014 to create the preconditions for the puppet state of Novorossiya4."
Of course, that is another staple of Russian propaganda, but it's just more lies.
In fact, Minsk agreements were made under duress, were flawed and unworkable from the beginning.
So, even though Ukraine's parliament passed new laws as required by Minsk, no Russian forces were ever withdrawn, no free elections were ever held in Russian controlled area of the Donbas, and the fighting never really stopped.
Russians viewed Minsk as a step on the path to Ukraine's destruction, as this quote from Putin's former aid explains:
Vladislav Surkov and Putin:
"In a June 2021 interview, Vladislav Surkov, Putin's aide for Ukraine policy from 2013 to 2020, who was removed from his role in February 2020, said that Ukraine "can be reformed as a confederation, with a lot of freedom for the regions to decide things by themselves".German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had been instrumental in forcing the agreement on Ukraine, said:
He said the country would be severed by the "geopolitical gravity" between Russia and the West, describing the Minsk agreements as an act that "legitimized the first division of Ukraine" in a "reconquest", "the first open geopolitical counter-attack by Russia [against the West]".[110]"
"Angela Merkel said in 2022 that the agreement had been 'an attempt to give Ukraine time'; Reuters reported that Ukraine used this time to strengthen its armed forces.[124]E. Pluribus Unum: "We armed Ukraine with offensive weapons, teased NATO membership for Ukraine and opened biological weapons labs there."
And still more laughable nonsense since:
Russia's "Little Green Men" in Ukraine, 2014:
- In 2014, after Russia's first invasion, US Pres. Obama "armed" Ukrainians with blankets and MREs (Meals Ready to Eat)!
If you consider Obama's blankets and MREs to be "offensive", then there was something wrong with your military training. - Pres. Trump did send lethal aid -- including Javelins and counter-battery radar -- and also began military training of Ukrainian troops.
But the weapons were kept in storage and never used "offensively". - It's not clear what Pres. Biden provided in military aid to Ukraine before Russia's invasion in February 2022.
Since Russia's full scale invasion, the US has supplied roughly one-third of all the aid going to Ukraine from dozens of countries worldwide. - NATO first offered membership to Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, but no date was ever set, nor has one been set even today.
- Finally, there were never "bioweapons labs" in Ukraine, as alleged by Russian propaganda.
But every country on earth has public health medical laboratories that work to research and mitigate threats of dangerous diseases, and some receive financial and other support from the U.S., the European Union, and the World Health Organization.
The reality was -- Russians repeatedly denied that they intended to invade Ukraine, all the while making massive buildups of troops near Ukraine beginning in March, 2021.
Russian denials continued up until the day of their invasion, in February 2022.
And regardless of Russian propaganda, Ukraine never did a single thing to threaten Russia's legitimate interests.
E. Pluribus Unum: "And finally, when Russia responded to all that, we claimed they invaded Ukraine for no good reason to annex territory."
In fact, Russians had no legitimate reasons to even threaten Ukraine, much less invade and annex Ukraine's internationally recognized -- including by Russia -- sovereign territory.