Donetsk and Lugansk are two regions located in the western part of Ukraine, but pro-Russian. There is a latent civil war there between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russian separatists, a conflict that has been going on for more than a decade. both provinces have declared themselves independent of Ukraine and they are supported and financed by Moscow, which has blocked access by sea and left the area in utter chaos.
After the Warsaw Pact, signed by the Eastern bloc countries during the Cold War, Ukraine annexed territories in the west and Krusov, Russian leader, ceded the Crimean peninsula. However, the Russians have retaken the region now. Likewise, in the Donbass region, made up of Donetsk and Luganskclashes between nationalists and separatists are constant.
Revolutionaries, rebels, nationalists and Russian infiltrators coexist in that region, they count on the help of Moscow to destabilize Ukraine. There began the Euromaidan, a popular rebellion that ended with Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president, overthrown. Also in the Donbass the orange revolution had taken place, after fraudulent elections in which Yanukovych had beaten Yushenko, a pro-European.
history repeats itself
People took to the streets to protest and the elections ended up being repeated, this time with Yushenko’s victory. The very tight results made clear the division in the country between pro-Russians and pro-Europeans. However, years later Yanukovych regained power and brought the region closer to Russiawhich forced not to sign an association agreement with the European Union.
That made young Europeans they went out to protest violently, forcing the president into exile in Russia and starting a civil war in the Ukraine. This ended with the prohibition of Russian as a co-official language and the anger of almost half of the population, 38%, who wanted to maintain ties with Russia. What’s more, with the coming of the nationalists to power, Crimea revolted and seceded from the countryegged on by Russia, which was giving away Russian passports to make them revolt.
This same operation is the one that Russia is now repeating in Donbass, a region located on the border between the two countries, handing out passports to the inhabitants of the entire region, which would have the rights of Russian citizens. And that is what the country governed by Putin relies on to justify their military actions in Ukraineto protect ‘its citizens’.