Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene launched into a litany of false statements about the current conflict in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government. First, the Georgia Republican claimed that Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is part of an “eight-year-long smoldering conflict in which peace agreements have repeatedly been violated for both sides”.
Of course, her claim is false. The “conflict” was launched in 2014 when Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered an unprovoked invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, which is recognized under international law as part of Ukraine’s sovereign territory. Russia also fomented and backed separatist movements in the eastern half of Ukraine, in areas that now comprise the so-called “people’s republics” which he recognized to provide a pretext for the larger invasion he launched last month.
Greene also claimed that Zelensky’s government “only exists because the Obama state department helped to overthrow the previous regime”.
Her claim has no basis in reality. Former Russia-aligned Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled the country after security forces under his control killed and wounded protesters in Kyiv, leading to the Ukrainian parliament voting to remove him from office by a margin of 328-0.
But allegations that the US fomented the 2014 Maidan Revolution that toppled Yanukovych are a staple of Russian propaganda and were a significant part of Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine.
The Republican representative also claimed without evidence that Ukraine is “a country in which [President] Joe Biden, [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi, and [Utah Senator] Mitt Romney all have direct financial interests”.
None of what she said is accurate.
In response, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) called her out for claiming “both sides” were responsible for cease-fire violations in a tweet Thursday.
“Putin is targeting and slaughtering civilians in a brutal unprovoked war against Ukraine, a sovereign democratic nation,” Cheney said. “Only the Kremlin and their useful idiots would call that ‘a conflict in which peace agreements have been violated by both sides.”
Putin is targeting and slaughtering civilians in a brutal unprovoked war against Ukraine, a sovereign democratic nation.
Only the Kremlin and their useful idiots would call that “a conflict in which peace agreements have been violated by both sides.”
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) March 17, 2022
