In its materials, Russian propaganda uses the term “rebel forces” to refer to separatists who have collaborated with Russia and allegedly “liberated Donbas” in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since 2014. This phrase was also used to refer to the Russian military, who in fact were on the territory of the Donbas and Luhansk region, but Russia did not recognize this.

With this term, they want to give greater heroism to the participants in the separatist movements. Like, they were engaged in resistance to the “Kyiv regime”, which came to power as a result of the “coup d'état” of 2014, as Russia calls it. In fact, it is about the events of the Euromaidan or the Revolution of Dignity. The propagandists want to create a legend around the people who supposedly opposed the values of the Revolution that they are fighting for real values and for their own survival. However, among the so-called rebel forces were representatives of the Russian special services. Their presence, in particular, was recorded due to the dialect, which is atypical for the inhabitants of the region, and there were other signs as well. Calling these events the so-called rebellion, Russian propaganda substitutes the concept, because in 2014 there was a Russian attack on the eastern regions of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea.

Using the term “rebel forces”, propagandists want to discredit Ukraine and deepen the artificially created split in it. Allegedly, the Ukrainians wanted to destroy the real identity of Donbas and Luhansk region, and the locals could no longer tolerate this, and therefore joined the “rebel forces”. This approach is not new. For example, a similar tactic was used during the 2004 presidential election for the campaign of Viktor Yanukovych, when his team spread messages about his opponent Viktor Yushchenko, whose supporters allegedly divide Ukraine into two types: the best (the West of the country) and the worst (the East). However, it is Russia that artificially deepens such a split, since it often supports forces that manipulate differences among residents of different regions of Ukraine.