“Illegal change of power” and “coup d'état” is how Russian propaganda describes the events in Ukraine in 2013-2014. They say that it was after this “coup” that Ukraine went on the wrong course and felt kinship with “the wrong ones”. Moscow convinced the whole world that “mass riots” took place in the Ukrainian capital, which led to the discontent of the “common people” who “arose”.

Russian propagandists use the term “coup d'état” primarily to refer to the Revolution of Dignity, an event that took place in response to the de facto usurpation of power by the fugitive ex-president Viktor Yanukovych. In 2013, he did not sign the Association Agreement and Free Trade Area with the European Union in Vilnius. After that, mass protests began, which became the beginning of the Euromaidan. One of the reasons for the bloody clashes between peaceful Ukrainians and proteges of Yanukovych was the beating of students who came to the rally to complain about the failure of the agreement between Ukraine and the EU.

Using the term “coup d'état”, Russian propaganda alludes to the illegal seizure of power by the so-called “nationalists” who took power into their own hands. However, in fact, Yanukovych's policy was to massively russify Ukraine, in order to later turn it into a Russian colony. And the government of Azarov, under the leadership of Yanukovych, seized power in Ukraine. After the beating of Ukrainian students on the orders of Yanukovych, the Ukrainian people did not commit a “coup d'état”, but fought for freedom, dignity and the right to call themselves Europeans. At a time when Ukrainians were dying for the foundations of democracy, Yanukovych fled Ukraine on his own and thus renounced power.