#Donbas (Ukraine)

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

21st January 1990: "Kharkiv and Donetsk have been Ukrainian since time immemorial."

Representatives from Donetsk and Kharkiv participate in a human chain for Ukrainian independence from the Soviet Union. Every region of the country voted for freedom from Moscow.

[suratan-zir]

Why do some people believe this false info that people in Donetsk and Luhansk oblast support Russia? Yeah some of them may support Russia, but i don't think the majority of people do.

That's a very complicated question - one I'm not quite prepared to answer today, because today has been a lot. But I'll try anyway.

The statement "people in Donetsk and Luhansk oblast support russia" is both correct and incorrect. It's all about the context.

Let's start from the beginning. Russian propaganda was rampant in these regions for years before 2014. The Kremlin poured a lot of resources into conditioning people in the Donbas to believe russian false narratives, creating an artificial divide between the eastern and western parts of Ukraine - an "us vs. them" dynamic. Once they achieved that, they simply claimed, "It was always like that. These are different nations, different people, and they were always against each other" - which, of course, is a lie.

Disinformation coming from russia was often so obscenely ridiculous that one has to wonder how people believed it. How they still believe it. Takes like "Western Ukrainians ("Banderovites," Nazis, "raguli," etc.) will create concentration camps for the Russian-speaking people of the Donbas" or "They will extract shale gas here, which will make the entire region completely uninhabitable."

Along with the fearmongering and dividing one nation into "us" and "them," russia also pushed the false narrative that the Donbas was "feeding" Ukraine ("Донбасс кормит Украину"), suggesting that other parts of Ukraine were nothing but parasites, feeding off the hard-working people of the Donbas. You see where this is going? The road to separatist sentiments was paved completely artificially by russia, and the so-called DPR (Donetsk People's Republic) was first created in 2005-2006 - many years before it actually came to fruition. There are speculations suggesting that Yanukovych and Putin wanted to divide Ukraine into two separate entities, separating western Ukraine.

In any case, all of this was possible only due to russia's corrosive influence paired with Ukrainian authorities not doing shit to stop it (likely due to russian infiltration). Heck, I remember absurd disinformation like "Ukraine got rid of all the residents of Sloviansk, secretly replacing them with Ukrainian-speaking khokhols from western Ukraine" (this was right after Ukraine liberated Sloviansk in 2014). Who could believe this nonsense? A lot of not-very-smart people.

Then there's the issue of gradual filtration and, as a result, the general degradation of the population. Since 2014, being openly pro-Ukrainian in russian-occupied parts of the Donbas has been dangerous. The last pro-Ukraine protesters were brutally beaten by russian thugs. Later, such protests became impossible altogether. So, those who could afford to leave - or who had nothing to lose - moved away. The pro-Ukrainian people who stayed can't express their real opinions without risking being thrown into a torture dungeon. Even before 2022, something as small as singing a song in Ukrainian in public could get you in trouble - or even cost you your life, depending on how lucky you were.

After 2014, when russia occupied parts of the Donbas, they continued their false narrative, claiming that western Ukrainians wanted to genocide/enslave/set on fire/etc. all Russian-speaking people from the east - despite the fact that Russian-speaking people in towns just a couple of kilometers from occupied Donetsk were living completely normal lives (when not shelled by russian terrorists). Their lives were much better than those in the occupied territories. It's hard to explain. All I can say is: corruption, propaganda, stupidity.

The irony is that now russia is doing exactly what it claimed Ukraine would do to Ukrainians living in the Donbas - concentration camps, genocide, persecution based on language, robbing the region of all its wealth and redistributing it to Putin's oligarchs, making the region uninhabitable for generations to come... the list goes on. Every accusation was a confession.

They have also switched the cause and effect - a standard gaslighting tactic used by dictators and domestic abusers alike. They created a parallel reality in which it's not russia who attacked Ukraine first in 2014, seized parts of Ukrainian land, and started a war. No, in their version, Ukraine is the aggressor, who had been "torturing" the people of the Donbas for eight years before russia invaded again and killed thousands of them.

People believe this for the same reason they believe any other bullshit - propaganda, low intellectual potential, more propaganda. People outside of the Donbas believe the "pro-russian Donetsk and Luhansk" because it's easy to create a false picture nowadays, especially if you don't really want to research the topic, but rather seek the confirmation of your own bias.

[sporadicneckmoneyfan]

Це місто Покровськ, Донецька область, Україна🇺🇦

До повномасштабного нападу руССкіх🇷🇺💩🤮💩🤮💩🤮💩 терористів мешкали 60 000 українців.

В Покровську був написаний Миколою Леонтовичем всесвітньовідомий музикальний шедевр усіх часів та народів "Щедрик".

Більшість людства знають цю мелодію під назвою "Carroll of the bells"

This is the city of Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine🇺🇦

Before the full-scale attack by Russian🇷🇺💩🤮💩🤮💩🤮💩 terrorists, 60,000 Ukrainians lived there.

In Pokrovsk, Mykola Leontovych wrote the world-famous musical masterpiece of all times and peoples, "Shchedryk".

Most of humanity knows this melody as "Carroll of the bells"

Висновок: росіяни - ко��чені ПІДАРАСИ

Conclusion: russians are complete FUCKING BASTARDS🖕🇷🇺💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩

[folklorespring]

10 years ago Donetsk Airport was closed due to armed clashes with russian subversive groups.

Later the Ukrainian defenders defenders of Donetsk Airport will be called cyborgs, a reference to their invincibility and courage. This name was first used by unknown pro-russian militant while trying to explain why the units of the militia forces could not take up arms at the Donetsk airport, which is protected by several dozen Ukrainian servicemen.

On the night of May 26, 2014, a group of pro-russian forces partially occupied Donetsk airport. It took place as Donetsk city and that part of the wider region were already under russian occupation. The airport was the last Ukrainian stronghold in the city.

The defense of Donetsk airport lasted 242 days.

The ruins of the airport, 24 December 2014

[anastasiamaru]

Терикони Донбасу та Сіверський Донець

Donbas Tailings and Siverskyi Donets river

The summits of mine dumps may possess a conical shape and stand out as notable landscape features, but they can also be flat and eroded. A mine dump is formed from waste rock delivered from the mine or quarry to the apex of the cone by railcars, skip hoists, or conveyors.

[justacynicalromantic]

[greenpostua]

😡🌊 В річці Кальчик під Маріуполем загинуло все живе.

Не залишилось навіть жаб. Окупаційна влада дозволила скидати туди якісь дуже токсичні стоки. Раніше окупанти також перекривали русло річки, перетворюючи річку на струмок.

📹: відео з соцмереж

[vintage-ukraine]

Morning. Shift by Yurii Zlyden, 1967

[warsofasoiaf]

What are your thoughts on the Donbass war (2014-2022)? Were the separatists russian puppets or the expression of (parts) of the local population? And what’s your views on the non-implementation of the Minsk agreement ?

The separatists were Russian proxies, full stop. The tapes from Glazyev clearly prove that, and opinion polls in those provinces show that even in Crimea, native Russian weren't enthusiastic on the idea of being annexed or controlled by Russia. Hence, the rebellion was largely manufactured out of whole cloth, and when paid demonstrations failed, Russia responded with importing irregulars to pose as native separatists. Here is an exhaustively well-researched report on exactly what went down with that, and when even irregulars failed, Russia had no choice but to launch its own invasion with its regular forces in 2014.

The idea of a "Donbas genocide" or "Donbas shelling" is a myth. It's a blatantly revisionist take that argues that while the Russian-led separatist forces were allowed to attack and shell the Ukrainians (more casualties were caused by Russians and Russian-led separatists), Ukraine was not allowed to defend itself or conduct counter-insurgency operations against an insurgency in its own territory.

The idea that "the Minsk agreements secured peace, but Ukraine refused to implement it" is likewise false. For one, Russia also habitually failed to implement its own provisions, conducting its own rigged elections in Donetsk and Luhansk contrary to the stated provisions of Minsk. For two, all foreign groups, i.e. Russia's imported forces, were to be removed, and they weren't. For three, Ukraine was supposed to have full sovereignty over its border, which Russia routinely transgressed to resupply its forces. It also blatantly broke the ceasefire to seize more territory. Russia pretended that it held no control over the separatist forces, but that was a transparent lie - repeated investigations and even testimony from the separatists themselves said that they took orders from Moscow.

Pretty much all the arguments are largely post-facto justifications to support Russian deniable asset wars. For all the claims of the Euromaidan being a "CIA-sponsored color revolution" (pro-tip: if someone uses those words unironically, you don't have to take anything they say seriously, they're just an unthinking consumer of Russian disinformation), the "Donbas separatists" were actually far closer to what that operation would be like in reality - imported agitators to create a false appearance of a separatist movement with military support to overthrow an existing government.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[sporadicneckmoneyfan]

Верхня світлина місто Торецьк Україна 2021 рік

Нижня 2022 рік після нападу фашистської Росії

Top photo city of Toretsk Ukraine 2021

From below 2022 after the attack of fascist Russia

[canberramaidan]

Virsky company performs the Hopak - Ukraine's national dance - in Donetsk in the years before the russian invasion.

[redjaybathood]

Evacuation from Hirnyk, Donetsk region, 09.09.24

Source

[ricisidro]

How to 'end the Russia-Ukraine War within a day.'

US President-elect Donald Trump Peace Plan or Peace Talks in Europe.

Creation of an 800-mile demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine, patrolled by European troops, with Russia retaining its territorial gains (20% of Ukraine: Crimea and the Donbas region made up of Donetsk and Luhansk) and Ukraine pledging not to join NATO for 20 years. Ukrainian President Zelensky has condemned the plan as "suicidal for Europe."

Source: Newsweek

[wherepond]

Ukraine war

Military summary 27 March 2025

Back to Contents

[greenpostua]

🌊 Ворог фактично знищив «Єнакієвське море» на Донбасі.

З Волинцівського водосховища окупаційна влада роками викачувала воду, ніяк не піклуючись про його наповнення — на це нехлюйство окупантів також накладались різкі зміни клімату в Україні, де з кожним роком погода стає посушливішою і спекотнішою.

Впродовж літа, або навіть раніше, дане водосховище повністю висохне — саме з нього комунальники Єнакієве забезпечували містян водою.

Цей приклад не єдиний — більшість водосховищ на окупованих територіях в схожому стані, а деякі вже давно зникли. Коли Україна поверне ці землі — вони будуть не лише поруйновані війною, а й без води, занедбані, неврожайні, сухі.

📸: Денис Казанський

[hisradiantfire]

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