{{Short description|Region in eastern Ukraine}} {{redirect|Donbass|the 2018 film|Donbass (film)}} {{distinguish|Dombås}} {{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox settlement <!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions --> | name = Donbas | native_name = {{native name list | tag1 = ru | name1 = Донбасс | tag2= uk | name2 = Донбас}} | other_name = | image_map = Donetsian Region in Ukraine.svg | map_alt = Map indicating the location of Donbass within Ukraine | map_caption = Location of Donbas (here understood as the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) within Ukraine | image_skyline ={{Photomontage |color = #ffffff |photo1a = Панорама - Донецка - panoramio.jpg |photo2a = Sviatohirsk Cave Monastery in Ukraine.jpg |photo2b = Вокзал Луганск.JPG |photo3a = М. Краматорськ, c.Білокузминівка.JPG |photo3b = Хомутовський степ - кам'яна баба та ковила волосиста.JPG |spacing = 2 |border = 0 |size = 260 }} | image_caption = {{hlist|Panorama of Donetsk|Sviatohirsk Monastery|Luhansk railway station|Chalk outcrop near Kramatorsk|Kurgan stele in the steppe}} | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = Ukraine{{refn|group=note|Most of Donbas is under Russian occupation. Russia considers Donetsk and Luhansk regions as its administrative divisions since 2022.}} and Russia{{refn|group=note|Most definitions of the Donbas include portions of Rostov Oblast}} | seat_type = Largest city | seat = Donetsk | area_total_km2 = 53201 | population_footnotes = <ref name="census">{{cite web|url=http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/news/article;891/ |title=Ukraine Census, population as of 1st August 2012 |publisher=State Statistics Committee of Ukraine |accessdate=2009-06-20 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100312174321/http://www.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/news/article%3B891/ |archivedate=12 March 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> | population_total = 6651378 | population_as_of = 2010 | population_density_km2 = 125 | population_demonym = | population_note = | demographics_type1 = GDP | demographics1_footnotes = <ref>{{Cite web|title=Валовии регіональнии продукт|url=https://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/operativ/operativ2008/vvp/vrp/vrp2008_u.htm|website=ukrstat.gov.ua}}</ref> | demographics1_title1 = Total | demographics1_info1 = ₴ 220 billion<br />(US$27 billion) | demographics1_title2 = Per capita | demographics1_info2 = ₴ 33,000<br />(US$4,000) }} The '''Donbas''' ({{IPAc-en|UK|d|ɒ|n|ˈ|b|ɑː|s}},<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Donbas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301220252/https://www.lexico.com/definition/donbas |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-03-01 |title=Donbas |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> {{IPAc-en|US|ˈ|d|ɒ|n|b|ɑː|s|,_|d|V|n|ˈ|b|æ|s}};<ref>{{cite American Heritage Dictionary|Donbas|access-date=2019-09-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|Donbas|access-date=2021-12-26}}</ref> {{langx|uk|Донбас}} {{IPA|uk|donˈbɑs|}}<ref name="Donets-Basin">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Donets-Basin |title=Donets Basin – region, Europe |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|date=4 June 2023 }}</ref>) or '''Donbass''' ({{langx|ru|Донбасс}} {{IPA|ru|dɐnˈbas|}})<ref>{{cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQxgk9Icxfs |title=Как далеко зайдет Москва на Донбассе. Срочное обращение Байдена. Первые санкции {{pipe}} ВЕЧЕР {{pipe}} 22.2.22 |trans-title= |language=ru |date=22 February 2022 |website=VoA.com |publisher=Voice of America |access-date=2022-02-22}}</ref> is a historical, cultural, and economic region on the Russia–Ukraine border, lying predominantly in Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Donets+Basin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210422045841/https://www.lexico.com/definition/donets_basin?s=t |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-04-22 |title=Donets Basin |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref name="FTdonbass"/> The vast majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian war, as the Russian Armed Forces control about 90% of the region as of October 2025.<ref name="w316">{{cite web | last=Eckel | first=Mike | title=Here's Why Russia's Vladimir Putin Is Fixated On Ukraine's Donbas | website=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty | date=2025-10-20 | url=https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-donbas-donetsk-war-putin/33564948.html | access-date=2025-10-22}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Kitsoft|title=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – Temporary Occupation of Territories in Donetsk and Luhansk Regions|url=https://mfa.gov.ua/en/temporary-occupation-territories-donetsk-and-luhansk-regions|access-date=2022-01-26|website=mfa.gov.ua|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Kitsoft|title=Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine – 10 facts you should know about the Russian military aggression against Ukraine|url=https://mfa.gov.ua/en/10-faktiv-pro-zbrojnu-agresiyu-rosiyi-proti-ukrayini|access-date=2022-01-26|website=mfa.gov.ua|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=A Russian court document mentioned Russian troops "stationed" in eastern Ukraine. Moscow insists there are none.|date=17 December 2021 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-ukraine-troops-in-donbas-court-document-amid-concern-invasion/|access-date=2022-01-26|publisher=CBS News|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="h487">{{cite web | title=Kremlin says ceasefire only possible after Kyiv withdraws from Donbas, but Russian deployment there could be limited | website=Reuters | date=2025-12-12 | url=https://www.reuters.com/world/kremlin-says-ceasefire-only-possible-after-kyiv-withdraws-donbas-russian-2025-12-12/ | access-date=2025-12-13}}</ref> At the last census in 2001, the population of the Donbas region of Ukraine was about 58% ethnic Ukrainian and 38% ethnic Russian.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hahn |first1=Gordon |title=Ukraine Over the Edge: Russia, the West and the "New Cold War" |date=2018 |publisher=McFarland |page=116}}</ref>
There are several definitions of the region's extent.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Тимошенко |first=Денис |date=2018-06-23 |script-title=ru:Донбасс – единственная часть Украины, возникшая из промышленного региона |trans-title=Donbass is the only part of Ukraine that emerged from an industrial region |url=https://www.radiosvoboda.org/a/donbass-realii/29384102.html |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Radio Liberty |language=ru}}</ref> In modern geopolitics, the Donbas usually refers to Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=O'Loughlin |first1=John |title=What Political Status Did the Donbas Want? Survey Evidence on the Eve of Russia's Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 |journal=Geopolitics |date=2024 |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1080/14650045.2024.2401413 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14650045.2024.2401413#d1e138 |quote=Today, the Donbas region refers to two administrative regions in Ukraine, Donetsk oblast and Luhansk oblast.|hdl=10919/124528 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Donbas region remains an intractable issue in talks between Russia and Ukraine |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2025/12/donbas-region-remains-intractable-issue-talks-between-russia-and-ukraine |website=Chatham House |date=5 December 2025}}</ref> The ''Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine'' defines the "small Donbas" as the northern part of Donetsk and the southern part of Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine, and the attached part of Rostov Oblast in Russia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ДОНБАС, РЕГІОН В УКРАЇНІ ТА РОСІЇ |url=http://resource.history.org.ua/cgi-bin/eiu/history.exe?&I21DBN=EIU&P21DBN=EIU&S21STN=1&S21REF=10&S21FMT=eiu_all&C21COM=S&S21CNR=20&S21P01=0&S21P02=0&S21P03=TRN=&S21COLORTERMS=0&S21STR=donbas |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=resource.history.org.ua}}</ref> The historical coal mining region excluded parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, but included areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Southern Russia.<ref name="FTdonbass">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC&q=history+of+donbass |title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=12–13 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref> The Euroregion of Donbas is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast in Russia.<ref name="ER23">{{cite web | url=http://www.aebr.eu/en/members/member_detail.php?region_id=186 | title=Euroregion Donbass | publisher=Association of European Border Regions | access-date=12 March 2015 | archive-date=16 March 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316084816/http://www.aebr.eu/en/members/member_detail.php?region_id=186 | url-status=dead }}</ref>
The Donbas formed the historical border between the Zaporozhian Sich and the Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.<ref name="racket" /> The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed from "'''Donets Basin'''", an abbreviation of "'''Donets Coal Basin'''" ({{langx|uk|Донецький вугільний басейн|Donetskyi vuhilnyi basein}}; {{langx|ru|Донецкий угольный бассейн|Donetskiy ugolnyy basseyn}}). The name of the coal basin is a reference to the Donets river and the Donets Ridge. The city of Donetsk (the fifth largest city in Ukraine) is considered the unofficial capital of the Donbas. Other large cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) include Mariupol, Luhansk, Makiivka, Horlivka, Kramatorsk, Sloviansk, Alchevsk, Sievierodonetsk, and Lysychansk.
In March 2014, following the Euromaidan protest movement and the resulting Revolution of Dignity, large swaths of the Donbas became gripped by pro-Russian and anti-government unrest. This unrest later grew into a war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", who were supported by Russia as part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian war. The conflict split the Donbas into Ukrainian-held territory, constituting about two-thirds of the region, and separatist-held territory, constituting about one-third. The region remained this way for years until Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. On 30 September 2022, Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of Donbas together with two other Ukrainian oblasts, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dickson |first=Janice |date=30 September 2022 |title=Putin signs documents to illegally annex four Ukrainian regions, in drastic escalation of Russia's war |work=The Globe and Mail |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-putin-signs-documents-to-unlawfully-claim-4-ukrainian-regions-in/ |access-date=5 March 2023}}</ref>
==Geography== right|thumb|250px|Geology of Ukraine {{legend|#FF6600|(8) <nowiki>=</nowiki> Donets fold belt}} [[File:Savur-Mohyla.JPG|thumb|Savur-Mohyla]] Donbas is located in the southeastern part of Ukraine, between the middle and lower flow of the river Donets in the north and Azov Upland and Lowland in the south. Total area of the region is approximately 23,000 sq km. It approximately corresponds to the territory of Donets Ridge, where coal layers emerge from the earth surface. This central area of Donbas proper is also known as "Old Donbas". To the west, north, east and southeast from the "Old Donbas", coal deposits are located at a depth of 500-600 meters and more; those regions, known as "New Donbas", emerged as coal producing regions only after World War II. In the west, the area of coal production extends up to the city of Samar in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and is known as Western Donbas. In the north, coal layers extend towards Kharkiv, and in the east towards Volgograd, covering parts of Russia. The total territory of "Old" and "New Donbas" comprises around 50,000 sq km.<ref name=ency>{{Cite book|title=Енциклопедія українознавства. Словникова частина (ЕУ-II)|date=1993|volume=2|page=562}}</ref>
The area of Donbas is located on a steppe upland reaching the height of 367 meters above sea level and divided by numerous valleys with depths up to 100 meters. The central part of the area formed during the Carboniferous period, but in peripherial regions Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous sediments are also present. Due to a larger amount of rainfall as compared to surrounding areas, Donbas represents a forest steppe ecosystem. The landscape of the area has experienced serious changes as a result of human activities: already during ancient times, the steppe was covered with numerous graves (kurgans), and in modern days the region is characterized with numerous factories, coal mines, slag heaps, settlements, high voltage lines, railways, highways and tram lines. Many rivers have dams and canals built on them, and subsidence as a result of mining has led to the emergence of new water bodies. Most of the area outside of cities is cultivated, with most of the original forests being replaced with artificial windbreaks and parks.<ref name=ency/>
==History== ===Ancient, medieval and early modern period=== [[File:Yamnaya Steppe Pastoralists.jpg|thumb|270px|Bronze Age spread of Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gibbons |first1=Ann |title=Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population |journal=Science |date=21 February 2017 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/thousands-horsemen-may-have-swept-bronze-age-europe-transforming-local-population}}</ref>]] [[File:Cumania (1200) eng.png|thumb|A map of the Cuman–Kipchak confederation in Eurasia, {{Circa|1200}}]] The Kurgan hypothesis places the Pontic steppes of Ukraine and southern Russia as the linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Balter |first1=Michael |title=Mysterious Indo-European homeland may have been in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia |journal=Science |date=13 February 2015 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/mysterious-indo-european-homeland-may-have-been-steppes-ukraine-and-russia}}</ref> The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Haak|first1=Wolfgang|last2=Lazaridis|first2=Iosif|last3=Patterson|first3=Nick|last4=Rohland|first4=Nadin|last5=Mallick|first5=Swapan|last6=Llamas|first6=Bastien|last7=Brandt|first7=Guido|last8=Nordenfelt|first8=Susanne|last9=Harney|first9=Eadaoin|last10=Stewardson|first10=Kristin|last11=Fu|first11=Qiaomei|date=2015-06-11|title=Massive migration from the steppe was a source for Indo-European languages in Europe|journal=Nature|volume=522|issue=7555|pages=207–211|doi=10.1038/nature14317|issn=0028-0836|pmc=5048219|pmid=25731166|bibcode=2015Natur.522..207H|arxiv=1502.02783}}</ref> [[File:Ukraine-Dyke Pole.png|thumb|A map of the sparsely populated Wild Fields in the 17th century]] The region has been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic tribes, such as Scythians, Alans, Huns, Bulgars, Pechenegs, Kipchaks, Turco-Mongols, Tatars and Nogais. During the Rus' period, lands along the Donets river in the northern part of modern Donbas fell under the influence of the Principality of Pereyaslav.<ref name=ency/> The region now known as the Donbas was largely unpopulated until the second half of the 17th century, when Don Cossacks established the first permanent settlements in the region.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Katchanovski |first1=Ivan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-h6r57lDC4QC&pg=PA135 |title=Historical Dictionary of Ukraine |last2=Kohut |first2=Zenon E. |last3=Nebesio |first3=Bohdan Y. |last4=Yurkevich |first4=Myroslav |date=2013-07-11 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7847-1 |location=Lanham |pages=135–136 |language=en}}</ref>
The first town in the region was founded in 1676, called Solanoye (now Soledar), which was built for the profitable business of exploiting newly discovered rock-salt reserves. Known for being a Cossack land, the "Wild Fields" ({{langx|uk|дике поле}}, {{Transliteration|uk|dyke pole}}), the area that is now called the Donbas was largely under the control of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate and the Turkic Crimean Khanate until the mid-late 18th century, when the Russian Empire conquered the Hetmanate and annexed the Khanate.<ref name="FTdon11">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC&q=history+of+donbass | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=11–13 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hauter |first=Jakob |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqjuzwEACAAJ |title=Russia's Overlooked Invasion: The Causes of the 2014 Outbreak of War in Ukraine's Donbas |date=2023 |publisher=Ibidem Verlag |isbn=978-3-8382-1803-8 |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref>
In the second half of the 17th century, settlers and fugitives from Hetman's Ukraine and Muscovy settled the lands north of the Donets river.<ref name="donets">{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=W. E. D. |title=The Ukraine |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1107641860 |page=362 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WVUHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA362}}</ref> Early settlements established during that period included Tor (modern Sloviansk) and Bakhmut; both served as border fortifications, and their population engaged in salt production. During the mid-18th century, two regiments of Serb colonists were settled along the Donets, establishing the region of Slavo-Serbia. During that period lands of modern-day Donbas were divided between Zaporozhian Sich, Don Host and Sloboda Ukraine. Following the dissolution of the Sich most of the region became part of Yekaterinoslav Governorate, with eastern parts being incorporated by Don Host Oblast.<ref name=ency/>
At the end of the 18th century, many Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs and Greeks migrated to lands along the southern course of the Donets river, into an area previously inhabited by nomadic Nogais, who were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate.<ref name="donets"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Yekelchyk |first1=Serhy |title=The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know |date=2015 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0190237301 |page=113 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UTZICgAAQBAJ&pg=PT113}}</ref> Tsarist Russia named the conquered territories "New Russia" ({{langx|ru|Новороссия|links=no}}, {{Transliteration|ru|Novorossiya}}). The new settlers chiefly engaged in animal husbandry, but starting from the 1830s grain cultivation started as well.<ref name=ency/>
===Beginning of industrialization=== As the Industrial Revolution took hold across Europe, the vast coal resources of the region, discovered in 1721, began to be exploited in the mid-late 19th century.<ref name="ew2">{{cite encyclopedia | title=Donets Basin | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica | year=2014}}</ref> Starting from the late 18th century, exploitation of coal deposits started, and several early steel mills were established in Luhansk (1795), near Yenakiieve (1859-1864) and in Lysychansk (1866-1870).<ref name=ency/> It was at this point that the name ''Donbas'' came into use, derived from the term "Donets Coal Basin" ({{langx|uk|Донецький вугільний басейн|links=no}}; {{langx|ru|Донецкий каменноугольный бассейн|links=no}}), referring to the area along the Donets river where most of the coal reserves were found. The rise of the coal industry led to a population boom in the region, largely driven by Russian settlers.<ref name="DbRUK">{{cite journal | jstor=261051| title=The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes | author=Andrew Wilson | journal=Journal of Contemporary History |date=April 1995 | volume=30 | issue=2 | page=274}}</ref> thumb|Yuzivka plant in 1872 Donetsk, the most important city in the region today, was founded in 1869 by Welsh businessman John Hughes on the site of the old Zaporozhian Cossack town of Oleksandrivka. Hughes built a steel mill and established several collieries in the region. The city was named after him as Yuzivka ({{Langx|uk|Юзівка|links=no}}) or Yuzovka ({{langx|ru|Юзовка|links=no}}). With the development of Yuzovka and similar cities, large numbers of landless peasants from peripheral governorates of the Russian Empire came looking for work.<ref name="donbas_id">{{Cite web |last=Klinova |first=Olha |date=2014-12-11 |script-title=uk:Як формувалась регіональна ідентичність Донбасу |trans-title=How the Donbas identity was formed |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2014/12/11/146063/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Istorychna Pravda}}</ref>
With the construction of first railways, especially the Catherine Railway, which in 1884 connected the area with Kryvbas iron ore deposits, rapid industrial growth started with participation of foreign capital from France, Belgium, Germany, United Kingdom and other countries. The factory in Yuzivka was followed by steel mills in Sulin (1872), Druzhkivka (1894), Alchevsk (1896), Petrovske (1897), Kramatorsk (1897), Makiivka (1899) and Kadiivka (1899). Between 1880 and 1900 coal production in Donbas increased from 1,4 to 11 million tons, and the number of coal miners working in the area had reached 68,000. By 1900 Donbas overtook the Urals industrial region by production of pig iron. Despite the rapid industrial growth, local industry greatly suffered from the economic crises of 1873-1875, 1881-1882 and 1900-1902. Rapid growth resumed in the years preceding World War I.<ref name=ency/>
According to the Russian Imperial Census of 1897, Ukrainians ("Little Russians", in the official imperial language) accounted for 52.4% of the population of the region, whilst ethnic Russians constituted 28.7%.<ref name="FTdon41">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC&q=history+of+donbass | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=41–42 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref> Ethnic Greeks, Germans, Jews and Tatars also had a significant presence in the Donbas, particularly in the district of Mariupol, where they constituted 36.7% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php |title=The First General Census of the Russian Empire of 1897 − Breakdown of population by mother tongue and districts in 50 Governorates of the European Russia |access-date=22 September 2014 |work=Institute of Demography at the National Research University 'Higher School of Economics' |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006074450/http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_lan_97_uezd_eng.php |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref> Despite this, Russians constituted the majority of the industrial workforce. Ukrainians dominated rural areas, but cities were often inhabited solely by Russians who had come seeking work in the region's heavy industries.<ref name="WalkSiegel1">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zsDExU_Oji0C | title=Workers of the Donbass Speak: Survival and Identity in the New Ukraine, 1982–1992 | publisher=State University of New York Press | author=Lewis H. Siegelbaum | year=1995 | location=Albany | page=162 | isbn=0-7914-2485-5 | author2=Daniel J. Walkowitz}}</ref> Most ethnic Russian migrants to the Donbas stemmed from the Central Black Earth Region.<ref name=ency/> Those Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were quickly assimilated into the Russian-speaking worker class.<ref name="UCreiUK">{{cite book | url=https://www.census.gov/population/international/files/sp/SP90.pdf | title=Ethnic Reidentification in Ukraine | publisher=United States Census Bureau | author=Stephen Rapawy | year=1997 | location=Washington, D.C. | access-date=7 March 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019191328/http://www.census.gov/population/international/files/sp/SP90.pdf | archive-date=19 October 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref> As a result, Donbas became the most Russified region of Ukraine.<ref name=ency/>
===Russian Revolutions and Civil War=== {{See also|Battle for the Donbas (1919)|Donbas operation (1919)}} [[File:Сбор угля бедными на выработанной шахте.jpg|thumb|''Poor Collecting Coal'' by Nikolay Kasatkin: Donbas, 1894]] thumb|A Soviet Russian propaganda poster from 1921 that says "The Donbas is the heart of Russia" Poor living and working conditions of workers led to regular strike actions, which were suppressed by the Russian police and gendarmerie. A major wave of strikes engulfed the Donbas during the Russian Revolution of 1905. In December 1905 a major workers' uprising took place in Horlivka, leading to a bloody crackdown against its participants. The Ukrainian national movement didn't have a significant influence on the region, although separate members of Ukrainian intelligentsia did attempt to spread national consciousness among the workers, publishing literary works on the topic of working life and establishing Prosvita branches.<ref name=ency/>
Following the February Revolution of 1917, Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks established a significant influence on the working classes in Donbas.<ref name=ency/> For a while, the government bodies of the Ukrainian People's Republic operated in the Donbas alongside their Russian Provisional Government equivalents.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494"/> However, as a major part of the workers belonged to Russian ethnicity, Ukrainian politicians were unable to get significant support. Local Bolsheviks, headed by Fyodor Sergeyev (Artyom), Kliment Voroshilov and Alexander Parkhomenko, succeeded in establishing Soviet power in parts of the Donbas with the help of forces led by Yegorov, which were dispatched from Moscow. Local Red Guards led the fight against Kaledin's Don Cossacks in the east and forces of Central Rada in the west. In December 1917, Donbas Bolsheviks supported the creation of a puppet Soviet government of Ukraine in Kharkiv. Following the beginning of a joint offensive by Ukrainian and German forces in February 1918, the short-lived Donetsk-Krivoi Rog Soviet Republic was proclaimed.<ref name=ency/>
In April 1918 troops loyal to the Ukrainian People's Republic took control of large parts of the region.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-04-18 |title=100 років тому визволили Бахмут і решту Донбасу |trans-title=100 years ago Bakhmut and the rest of Donbas liberated |url=https://www.istpravda.com.ua/short/2018/04/18/152320/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Istorychna Pravda |language=uk}}</ref> The Ukrainian State, the successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was able in May 1918 to bring the region under its control for a short time with the help of its German and Austro-Hungarian allies.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494">[https://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/225494 Lessons for the Donbas from two wars], The Ukrainian Week (16 January 2019)</ref> During that period, Ukrainian administration also spread its power on Taganrog uezd, which had previously been part of Don Cossack lands. According to a treaty between the Ukrainian State and Don Host, which was signed on 8 August 1918, the border between the two parties was established along the eastern border of Yekaterinoslav Governorate, with some additional areas east of Mariupol being transferred to Ukraine. A joint commission was established with involvement of both sides in order to preserve the region's economic unity.<ref name=ency/>
Soon after the establishment of the Directorate of Ukraine, in early 1919 Donbas once again came under Bolshevik control, but was soon thereafter captured by forces of the Volunteer Army.<ref name=ency/> During the 1917–22 Russian Civil War, Nestor Makhno, who commanded the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine, was the most popular leader in the Donbas.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494"/>
===Soviet period (1919–1941)=== [[File:Ukraine-Donechyna_hu.png|right|thumb|250px|Map of the historical region of Donbas, within modern-day Ukraine and the Rostov Oblast of Russia]] [[File:1930. Donetsk artema 60.jpg|thumb|Main street of Stalino in 1930]] In December 1919 Bolshevik control was restored, and Donbas was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic as a separate governorate with centre in Bakhmut. Cossacks in the region were subjected to decossackisation during 1919–1921.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.york.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2003/cossacks/| title = Soviet order to exterminate Cossacks is unearthed| date = 19 November 2010| website = University of York| access-date = 11 September 2014| quote = 'Ten thousand Cossacks were slaughtered systematically in a few weeks in January 1919 [...] 'And while that wasn't a huge number in terms of what happened throughout the Russia, it was one of the main factors which led to the disappearance of the Cossacks as a nation. [...]' }}</ref> In 1924 administrative borders of Ukrainian SSR were modified, with parts of eastern Donbas, including the cities of Shakhty, Sulin and Taganrog, being transferred to Russian SFSR.<ref name=ency/>
As a result of revolution and war, most of the industry in the Donbas was destroyed. Between 1913 and 1920 coal production had decreased from 25,3 to 4,6 millions of tons, and iron production was at 0,5% of the pre-war level, with only one factory in Yenakiieve remaining in operation. As a result of reconstruction works, by 1928-1929 the pre-war levels of coal, iron and steel production were restored. Migration of workforce, mainly from Russia, continued, with the population of Yuzivka exceeding 100,000 inhabitants. During the second half of 1920s and early 1930s Donbas underwent Ukrainization, with part of the press and several educational establishments adopting Ukrainian language in their activities.<ref name=ency/>
However, Ukrainization in Donbas was conducted at a smaller scale than in other regions, and by 1933 the policy had been abandoned, starting a new wave of Russification and repressions against Ukrainian activists.<ref name=ency/> Ukrainians in the Donbas were greatly affected by the 1932–33 Holodomor famine and the Russification policy of Joseph Stalin. As most ethnic Ukrainians were rural peasant farmers, they bore the brunt of the famine.<ref>{{cite book |last= Potocki |first= Robert |year= 2003 |title= Polityka państwa polskiego wobec zagadnienia ukraińskiego w latach 1930–1939 |language= pl, en |location= Lublin |publisher= Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej |isbn= 978-8-391-76154-0 }}</ref><ref name="Piotr1">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jLfX1q3kJzgC&pg=PA208 | title=Ethnic Groups and Population Changes in Twentieth-Century Central-Eastern Europe | publisher=M. E. Sharpe | author=Piotr Eberhardt | year=2003 | location=Armonk, New York | pages=208–209 | isbn=0-7656-0665-8}}</ref>
Starting from the late 1920s, rapid industrialization led to the reconsturtion of old and establishment of new enterprises, including some new branches such as machine-building and chemical industry. By 1940, annual coal production had reached 83,7 million tons. Due to repression and collectivization, most of the new workers settling in the Donbas arrived from other regions of Ukraine. As a result of migration, Donbas became the biggest urban agglomeration in Ukraine, with the region's population growing from 2,960,000 to 5,940,000 inhabitants between 1929 and 1939.<ref name=ency/>
===Nazi occupation (1941–1943)=== thumb|German troops marching through Stalino, October 1941 {{See also|Operation Little Saturn|Donbas strategic offensive (July 1943)|Donbas strategic offensive (August 1943)}} The Donbas was greatly affected by the Second World War. In the lead-up to the war, the region was racked by poverty and food shortages. War preparations resulted in an extension of the working day for factory labourers, whilst those who deviated from the heightened standards were arrested.<ref name="Bfee2">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | pages=253–255 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref> Nazi Germany's leader Adolf Hitler viewed the resources of the Donbas as critical to Operation Barbarossa. As such, the Donbas suffered under Nazi occupation during 1941 and 1942.<ref name="Bfee3">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | page=251 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref>
Thousands of industrial labourers were deported to Nazi Germany for use in factories. In what was then called Stalino Oblast, now Donetsk Oblast, 279,000 civilians were killed over the course of the occupation. In Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now Luhansk Oblast, 45,649 were killed.<ref name="Bfee4">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5b689wW7qwC | title=Freedom and Terror in the Donbas: A Ukrainian-Russian Borderland, 1870s–1990s | publisher=Cambridge University Press | author=Hiroaki Kuromiya | year=2003 | page=273 | isbn=0521526086}}</ref>
In 1943 the Operation Little Saturn and Donbas strategic offensive by the Red Army resulted in the return of Donbas to Soviet control. The war had taken its toll, leaving the region both destroyed and depopulated. As a result of wartime destruction, the region's infrastructure was severely damaged. Coal and metal production levels from 1940 were only restored in 1949.<ref name=ency/>
===Soviet period (1943–1991)=== thumb|A brigade of Donetsk miners in 1971 During the reconstruction of the Donbas after the end of the Second World War, large numbers of Russian workers arrived to repopulate the region, further altering the population balance. In 1926, 639,000 ethnic Russians resided in the Donbas, and Ukrainians made up 60% of the population.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=261051| title=The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes | author=Andrew Wilson | journal=Journal of Contemporary History |date=April 1995 | volume=30 | issue=2 | page=275 |quote="By 1924 there were 158 Ukrainian schools in the Donbas; by 1930 44 per cent of the 'industrial apparat' was Ukrainian-speaking; while the percentage of the working class who considered themselves Ukrainian supposedly rose from 40.6 per cent in 1926 to 70 per cent in 1929 (the overall population of the Donbas was 60 per cent Ukrainian in 1926)."}}</ref> As a result of the Russification policy, the Ukrainian population of the Donbass then declined drastically as ethnic Russians settled in the region in large numbers.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=261051| title=The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes | author=Andrew Wilson | journal=Journal of Contemporary History |date=April 1995 | volume=30 | issue=2 | page=275 |quote="Russification was achieved first and foremost through the physical inflow of huge numbers of Russians in the years after 1945. Their numbers grew from 0.77 million in 1926 to 2.55 million in 1959 and 3.6 million in 1989. In percentage terms the number of Russians grew from 31.4 per cent in 1926 to 44 per cent in 1989."}}</ref>
Despite the postwar reconstruction, as of 1955 35% of miners in the Donbas continued to work manually, although mechanization gradually increased. Over 70% of workforce in the mines consisted of young people, with levels of employee turnover reaching 40%. As a result of high production costs, 70% of Donbas coal was consumed in Ukraine, with the rest being exported to other parts of the USSR and abroad. In 1957 production of internal combustion locomotives was launched at Luhansk Locomotive Factory. During the same year, Ukraine's most powerful thermal power station started operation. Gradual electrification of railways and connection of the region to natural gas supplies started. In 1954 works on the construction of Siverskyi Donets – Donbas Canal began. By 1956, 90% of the region's population was urbanized.<ref name=ency/>
By 1959, the ethnic Russian population was 2.55 million. Russification was further advanced by the 1958–59 Soviet educational reforms, which led to the near elimination of all Ukrainian-language schooling in the Donbas.<ref name="LPinS">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qaSdffgD9t4C&pg=PA57 | title=Language Policy in the Soviet Union | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | author=L.A. Grenoble | year=2003 | isbn=1402012985}}</ref><ref name="SCandNC">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/socialchangenati00kraw | title=Social change and national consciousness in twentieth-century Ukraine | publisher=Macmillan | author=Bohdan Krawchenko | year=1985 | isbn=0333361997}}</ref> By the time of the Soviet Census of 1989, 45% of the population of the Donbas reported their ethnicity as Russian.<ref name="Sasre">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIXV1dms-8MC&pg=PA286 | title=Secession as an International Phenomenon: From America's Civil War to Contemporary Separatist Movements | publisher=University of Georgia Press | year=2010 | pages=286–287 | isbn=978-0820330082 | editor=Don Harrison Doyle}}</ref> In 1990, the Interfront of the Donbass was founded as a movement against Ukrainian independence.
===In independent Ukraine (from 1991)=== [[File:Map of Donbas region.svg|right|thumb|250px|A map showing the present-day definition of the Donbas within Ukraine]] [[File:Don Cossacks monument Luhansk.JPG|thumb|210px|A monument to Don Cossacks in Luhansk. "To the sons of glory and freedom".]] In the 1991 referendum on Ukrainian independence, 83.9% of voters in Donetsk Oblast and 83.6% in Luhansk Oblast supported independence from the Soviet Union. Turnout was 76.7% in Donetsk Oblast and 80.7% in Luhansk Oblast.<ref name="ELF12">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPNoAAAAMAAJ | title=Europe's Last Frontier? | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | editor=Oliver Schmidtke | year=2008 | location=New York | pages=103–105 | isbn=978-0-230-60372-1}}</ref> In October 1991, a congress of South-Eastern deputies from all levels of government took place in Donetsk, where delegates demanded federalisation.<ref name="ukrainianweek225494"/>
The region's economy deteriorated severely in the ensuing years. By 1993, industrial production had collapsed, and average wages had fallen by 80% since 1990. The Donbas fell into crisis, with many accusing the new central government in Kyiv of mismanagement and neglect. Donbas coal miners went on strike in 1993, causing a conflict that was described by historian Lewis Siegelbaum as "a struggle between the Donbas region and the rest of the country". One strike leader said that Donbas people had voted for independence because they wanted "power to be given to the localities, enterprises, cities", not because they wanted heavily centralised power moved from "Moscow to Kyiv".<ref name="ELF12" />
This strike was followed by a 1994 consultative referendum on various constitutional questions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, held concurrently with the first parliamentary elections in independent Ukraine.<ref name="MoU">{{cite book | url=http://books.openedition.org/ceup/1742#ftn11 | title=The Moulding of Ukraine | publisher=Central European University Press | author=Kataryna Wolczuk | year=2001 | pages=129–188 | isbn=9789639241251}}</ref> These questions included whether Russian should be declared an official language of Ukraine, whether Russian should be the language of administration in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, whether Ukraine should federalise, and whether Ukraine should have closer ties with the Commonwealth of Independent States.<ref name="RIIDA">{{cite book| title=Regional Identity and Interests: The Case of East Ukraine | publisher=Studies in Contemporary History and Security Policy | author=Hryhorii Nemyria | year=1999 | work=Between Russia and the West: Foreign and Security Policy of Independent Ukraine}}</ref> Close to 90% of voters voted in favour of these propositions.<ref name="UEANA">{{cite web | url=http://www.nato.int/acad/fellow/94-96/lupiy/01-02.htm | title=Ukraine And European Security – International Mechanisms As Non-Military Options For National Security of Ukraine | work=Individual Democratic Institutions Research Fellowships 1994–1996 | publisher=NATO | access-date=21 September 2014 | author=Bohdan Lupiy}}</ref> None of them were adopted since the vote was nationwide. Ukraine remained a unitary state, Ukrainian was retained as the sole official language, and the Donbas gained no autonomy.<ref name="Sasre"/> Nevertheless, the Donbas strikers gained many economic concessions from Kyiv, allowing for an alleviation of the economic crisis in the region.<ref name="ELF12" />
Small strikes continued throughout the 1990s, though demands for autonomy faded. Some subsidies to Donbas heavy industries were eliminated, and many mines were closed by the Ukrainian government because of liberalising reforms pushed for by the World Bank.<ref name="ELF12" />
In 1994, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum prohibited the signatories to from threaten or use military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, amongst others.
In the 1994 presidential election and the 1999 Ukrainian presidential election, it was Leonid Kuchma, who was re-elected as president of Ukraine with support from the Donbas and other areas in eastern Ukraine.<ref name="ELF12" /> President Kuchma gave economic aid to the Donbas, using development money to gain political support in the region.<ref name="ELF12" />
Power in the Donbas became concentrated in a regional political elite, known as oligarchs, during the early 2000s. Privatisation of state industries led to rampant corruption. Regional historian Hiroaki Kuromiya described this elite as the "Donbas clan", a group of people that controlled economic and political power in the region.<ref name="ELF12" /> Prominent members of the "clan" included Viktor Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov. [[File:Другий тур 2010 по округах-en.png|thumb|During the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election, most people in Donbas voted for Viktor Yanukovych.]]
A brief attempt at gaining autonomy by pro-Viktor Yanukovych politicians and officials was made in 2004 during the Orange Revolution. The so-called South-East Ukrainian Autonomous Republic was intended to consist out of nine South-Eastern regions of Ukraine. The project was initiated on 26 November 2004 by the Luhansk Oblast Council, and was discontinued the next month by the Donetsk Oblast Council. On 28 November 2004, in Sievierodonetsk, the so-called {{ill|First All-Ukraine Congress of People's Deputies And Local-Council's Deputies|uk|Перший Всеукраїнський з'їзд народних депутатів та депутатів місцевих рад}} took place, organised by the supporters of Viktor Yanukovych.<ref name="zn.ua">[https://zn.ua/internal/sezd_pobediteley.html The Congress of the Victors ("Съезд победителей")], Zerkalo Nedeli [in Russian], ''zn.ua''</ref><ref name="bbc.com">[https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/domestic/story/2004/11/041128_severodoneck "The Congress of Regions" took place in Sievierodonetsk] [in Ukrainian], ''www.bbc.com''</ref>
A total of 3,576 delegates from 16 oblasts of Ukraine, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol took part in the congress, claiming to represent over 35 million citizens. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and an advisor from the Russian Embassy were present in the presidium. There were calls for the appointment of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine or prime minister, for declaring of martial law in Ukraine, dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada, creation of self-defence forces, and for the creation of a federative South-Eastern state with its capital in Kharkiv.<ref name="zn.ua"/><ref name="bbc.com"/>
Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko, however, stated that no one wanted autonomy, but rather sought to stop the Orange Revolution demonstrations going on at the time in Kyiv and negotiate a compromise. After the Orange Revolution's victory, some of the organisers of the congress were charged with "encroachment upon the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine", but no convictions were made.<ref>[https://ua.korrespondent.net/ukraine/258128-golovi-luganskoyi-oblradi-visunute-obvinuvachennya-v-separatizmi Head of the Luhansk Oblast Council was charged with separatism] [in Ukrainian], ''ua.korrespondent.net''</ref><ref>[https://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/06/2005/5703baf09a7947afa08c8263 Ukrainian Governors are accused of separatism] [in Russian], ''www.rbc.ru''</ref>
In other parts of Ukraine during the 2000s, the Donbas was often perceived as having a "thug culture", as being a "Soviet cesspool", and as "backward". Writing in the ''Narodne slovo'' newspaper in 2005, commentator Viktor Tkachenko said that the Donbas was home to "fifth columns", and that speaking Ukrainian in the region was "not safe for one's health and life".<ref name="ELF17">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPNoAAAAMAAJ | title=Europe's Last Frontier? | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | editor=Oliver Schmidtke | year=2008 | location=New York | pages=102–103 | isbn=978-0-230-60372-1}}</ref> It was also portrayed as being home to pro-Russian separatism. The Donbas is home to a significantly higher number of cities and villages that were named after Communist figures compared to the rest of Ukraine.<ref name="22 cities and 44 villages">{{Cite web |date=2015-06-04 |title=В Україні перейменують 22 міста і 44 селища |trans-title=In Ukraine rename 22 cities and 44 villages |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2015/06/4/7070191/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Ukrainska Pravda |language=uk}}</ref> Despite this portrayal, surveys taken across that decade and during the 1990s showed strong support for remaining within Ukraine and insignificant support for separatism.<ref name="ELF19">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IPNoAAAAMAAJ | title=Europe's Last Frontier? | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | editor=Oliver Schmidtke | year=2008 | location=New York | pages=108–111 | isbn=978-0-230-60372-1}}</ref>
=== Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present) === ==== War in Donbas ==== {{main|War in Donbas (2014–2022)}} [[File:Donbas (2015–2022).svg|thumb|400px|A map of the region during the frozen conflict phase of the Donbas war, from the conclusion of the Battle of Debaltseve in 2015 until the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine]] From the beginning of March 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in the Donbas, as part of the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and the Euromaidan movement. These demonstrations, which followed the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and which were part of a wider group of concurrent pro-Russian protests across southern and eastern Ukraine, escalated in April 2014 into a war between the Russian-backed separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR respectively), and the Ukrainian government.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.kyivpost.com/content/ukraine/armed-pro-russian-insurgents-in-luhansk-say-they-are-ready-for-police-raid-343167.html |title=Armed pro-Russian insurgents in Luhansk say they are ready for police raid |work=Kyiv Post |date=12 April 2014 |last=Grytsenko |first=Oksana}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-special-forces-sent-eastern-city-retake-buildings-082049113.html |title=Ukraine to deploy troops to quash pro-Russian insurgency in the east |work=Yahoo News Canada |date=14 April 2014 |agency=Associated Press |last=Leonard |first=Peter |access-date=26 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140414125950/https://ca.news.yahoo.com/ukraine-special-forces-sent-eastern-city-retake-buildings-082049113.html |archive-date=14 April 2014 }}</ref>
Amid that conflict, the self-proclaimed republics held referendums on the status of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts on 11 May 2014. In the referendums, viewed as illegal by Ukraine and undemocratic by the international community, about 90% voted for the independence of the DPR and LPR.<ref name="wirearticle18599173">{{cite news | url=http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/05/referendum-on-self-rule-in-ukraine-passes-with-over-90-of-the-vote/362062/ | title=Referendum on Self-Rule in Ukraine 'Passes' with Over 90% of the Vote | work=The Wire | date=11 May 2014 | access-date=12 May 2014 | author=Wiener-Bronner, Daniel | archive-date=4 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304070829/http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/05/referendum-on-self-rule-in-ukraine-passes-with-over-90-of-the-vote/362062/ | url-status=dead }}<br />{{cite news | url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/controversial-independence-votes-add-to-ukrainian-instability/article18599173/ | title=Ukraine denounces pro-Russian referendums | work=The Globe and Mail | date=11 May 2014 | access-date=12 May 2014 }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|The Russian word used, ''самостоятельность'', (''samostoyatel'nost'') (literally "standing by oneself"), can be translated as either full independence or broad autonomy, which left voters confused about what their ballot actually meant.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/10/donetsk-referendum-ukraine-civil-war East Ukraine goes to the polls for independence referendum | The Observer]. ''The Guardian''. 10 May 2014.</ref><ref name="wirearticle18599173"/>}}
The initial protests in the Donbas were largely native expressions of discontent with the new Ukrainian government.<ref name="de">{{Cite report |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1400/RR1498/RAND_RR1498.pdf |title=Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine |last1=Kofman |first1=Michael |last2=Migacheva |first2=Katya |publisher=Rand Corporation |location=Santa Monica |pages=33–34 |last3=Nichiporuk |first3=Brian |last4=Radin |first4=Andrew |last5=Tkacheva |first5=Olesya |last6=Oberholtzer |first6=Jenny |year=2017}}</ref> Russian involvement at this stage was limited to its voicing of support for the demonstrations. The emergence of the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk began as a small fringe group of the protesters, independent of Russian control.<ref name="de" /><ref name="wil234">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Andrew |date=20 April 2016 |title=The Donbas in 2014: Explaining Civil Conflict Perhaps, but not Civil War |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |language=en |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=631–652 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2016.1176994 |issn=0966-8136 |s2cid=148334453}}</ref> This unrest, however, only evolved into an armed conflict because of Russian military backing for what had been a marginal group as part of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The conflict was thus, in the words of historian Hiroaki Kuromiya, "secretly engineered and cleverly camouflaged by outsiders".<ref name=sdsd238>{{cite web |last=Kuromiya |first=Hiroaki |title=The Enigma of the Donbas: How to Understand Its Past and Future |url=https://www.historians.in.ua/index.php/en/dyskusiya/1597-hiroaki-kuromiya-the-enigma-of-the-donbas-how-to-understand-its-past-and-future |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=historians.in.ua}}</ref>
There was limited support for separatism in the Donbas before the outbreak of the war, and little evidence of support for an armed uprising.<ref name="wil9">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Andrew |date=20 April 2016 |title=The Donbas in 2014: Explaining Civil Conflict Perhaps, but not Civil War |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |language=en |volume=68 |issue=4 |page=641 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2016.1176994 |issn=0966-8136 |s2cid=148334453}}</ref> Russian claims that Russian speakers in the Donbas were being persecuted or even subjected to "genocide" by the Ukrainian government, forcing its hand to intervene, were deemed false by Voice of America.<ref name=sdsd238/><ref>{{cite web |title=Defending Ukraine Threat, Putin Regurgitates Misleading 'Genocide' Claim |url=https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-check-defending-ukraine-threat-putin-regurgitates-misleading-genocide-claim/31710603.html |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=Polygraph.info |date=18 February 2022 |language=en}}</ref>
thumb|right|250px|Ukrainian troops in the Donbas, March 2015 Fighting continued through the summer of 2014, and by August 2014, the Ukrainian "Anti-Terrorist Operation" was able to vastly shrink the territory under the control of the pro-Russian forces, and came close to regaining control of the Russo-Ukrainian border.<ref name="de4">{{Cite report |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1400/RR1498/RAND_RR1498.pdf |title=Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine |last1=Kofman |first1=Michael |last2=Migacheva |first2=Katya |publisher=Rand Corporation |location=Santa Monica |pages=44 |last3=Nichiporuk |first3=Brian |last4=Radin |first4=Andrew |last5=Tkacheva |first5=Olesya |last6=Oberholtzer |first6=Jenny |year=2017}}</ref> In response to the deteriorating situation in the Donbas, Russia abandoned what has been called its "hybrid war" approach, and began a conventional invasion of the region.<ref name=de4/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Snyder |first=Timothy |title=The road to unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America |date=3 April 2018 |isbn=978-0-525-57446-0 |edition=First |location=New York |page=191 |oclc=1029484935}}</ref> As a result of the Russian invasion, DPR and LPR insurgents regained much of the territory they had lost during the Ukrainian government's preceding military offensive.<ref name="Katchanovski2016">{{Cite journal | author=Ivan Katchanovski |date=1 October 2016 |title=The Separatist War in Donbas: A Violent Break-up of Ukraine? |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299383810 |journal=European Politics and Society |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=473–489 |doi=10.1080/23745118.2016.1154131 |issn=2374-5118 |s2cid=155890093}}</ref>
Only this Russian intervention prevented an immediate Ukrainian resolution to the conflict.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freedman |first=Lawrence |date=2 November 2014 |title=Ukraine and the Art of Limited War |journal=Survival |language=en |volume=56 |issue=6 |page=13 |doi=10.1080/00396338.2014.985432 |issn=0039-6338 |s2cid=154981360|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name="wil3">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson |first=Andrew |date=20 April 2016 |title=The Donbas in 2014: Explaining Civil Conflict Perhaps, but not Civil War |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |language=en |volume=68 |issue=4 |pages=634, 649 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2016.1176994 |issn=0966-8136 |s2cid=148334453}}</ref><ref name="myk22">{{Cite journal |last=Mykhnenko |first=Vlad |date=15 March 2020 |title=Causes and Consequences of the War in Eastern Ukraine: An Economic Geography Perspective |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=528–560 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2019.1684447 |issn=0966-8136 |doi-access=free|url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:88084b93-3b36-47d2-9e09-57bf1ad3c270/files/rhd76s011c }}</ref> This forced the Ukrainian side to seek the signing of a ceasefire agreement.<ref>{{cite web |title=The background to the Minsk agreements |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/minsk-conundrum-western-policy-and-russias-war-eastern-ukraine-0/background-minsk |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank |language=en}}</ref> Called the Minsk Protocol, this was signed on 5 September 2014.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Minsk-1 agreement |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/minsk-conundrum-western-policy-and-russias-war-eastern-ukraine-0/minsk-1-agreement |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank |language=en}}</ref> As this failed to stop the fighting, another agreement, called Minsk II was signed on 12 February 2015.<ref name=sdsd46899>{{cite web |title=The Minsk-2 agreement |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/minsk-conundrum-western-policy-and-russias-war-eastern-ukraine-0/minsk-2-agreement |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank |language=en}}</ref> This agreement called for the eventual reintegration of the Donbas republics into Ukraine, with a level of autonomy.<ref name=sdsd46899/> The aim of the Russian intervention in the Donbas was to establish pro-Russian governments that, upon reincorporation into Ukraine, would facilitate Russian interference in Ukrainian politics.<ref>{{cite web |title=Conclusions |url=https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/05/minsk-conundrum-western-policy-and-russias-war-eastern-ukraine-0/conclusions |access-date=2022-03-03 |website=Chatham House – International Affairs Think Tank |language=en}}</ref> The Minsk agreements were thus highly favourable to the Russian side, as their implementation would accomplish these goals.<ref name="de456">{{Cite report |url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR1400/RR1498/RAND_RR1498.pdf |title=Lessons from Russia's Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine |last1=Kofman |first1=Michael |last2=Migacheva |first2=Katya |publisher=Rand Corporation |location=Santa Monica |pages=45–46 |last3=Nichiporuk |first3=Brian |last4=Radin |first4=Andrew |last5=Tkacheva |first5=Olesya |last6=Oberholtzer |first6=Jenny |year=2017}}</ref>
The conflict led to a vast exodus from the Donbas: half the region's population were forced to flee their homes.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kuznetsova |first=Irina |date=2020-03-15 |title=To Help 'Brotherly People'? Russian Policy Towards Ukrainian Refugees |url=http://pure-oai.bham.ac.uk/ws/files/94041001/Kuznetsova_To_help_brotherly_people_Russian_policy_towards_Ukrainian_refugees_.pdf |journal=Europe-Asia Studies |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=505–527 |doi=10.1080/09668136.2020.1719044 |s2cid=216252795 |issn=0966-8136}}</ref> A UN OHCHR report released on 3 March 2016 stated that, since the conflict broke out in 2014, the Ukrainian government registered 1.6 million internally displaced people who had fled the Donbas to other parts of Ukraine.<ref name="OHCHR232">{{Cite book |url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/Ukraine_13th_HRMMU_Report_3March2016.pdf |title=Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine 16 November 2015 to 15 February 2016 |date=3 March 2016 |publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights |access-date=3 March 2016}}</ref> Over 1 million were said to have fled elsewhere, mostly to Russia. At the time of the report, 2.7 million people were said to continue to live in areas under DPR and LPR control,<ref name="OHCHR232"/> comprising about one-third of the Donbas.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Seddon |first1=Max |last2=Chazan |first2=Guy |last3=Foy |first3=Henry |date=2022-02-22 |title=Putin backs separatist claims to whole Donbas region of Ukraine |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/09fb49b9-c611-4b19-b1ee-3fd2cbdf44fc |access-date=2022-03-04}}</ref>
Despite the Minsk agreements, low-intensity fighting along the line of contact between Ukrainian government and Russian-controlled areas continued until 2022. Since the start of the conflict there have been 29 ceasefires, each intended to remain in force indefinitely, but none of them stopped the violence.<ref name="7265424Donbass">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-07 |title=Найдовше перемир'я на Донбасі. Чи воно існує насправді |trans-title=The longest truce in Donbas. Does it really exist |url=https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2020/09/7/7265424/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |website=Ukrainska Pravda |language=uk}}</ref><ref name="tass1038447">[http://tass.com/world/1038447 New Year ceasefire enters into force in Donbass], TASS (29 December 2018)</ref><ref name="tass.com/world/1027270">{{Cite news |date=23 October 2018 |title=Four DPR servicemen killed in shellings by Ukrainian troops in past week |agency=Information Telegraph Agency of Russia |url=http://tass.com/world/1027270 |access-date=28 October 2018}}</ref> This led the war to be referred to as a "frozen conflict".<ref name="REU21JAN22">{{Cite news |date=21 January 2015 |title=Ukraine accuses separatists of abusing Minsk deal with land grab |work=Reuters |url=http://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-klimkin-idINKBN0KT1VD20150120 |access-date=22 January 2015 |archive-date=21 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321080308/http://in.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-klimkin-idINKBN0KT1VD20150120 |url-status=dead }}</ref> On 11 January 2017, the Ukrainian government approved a plan to reintegrate the occupied part of the Donbas and its population into Ukraine.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://uacrisis.org/51835-reintegration|title=Government's plan for the reintegration of Donbas: the pros, cons and alternatives {{!}} UACRISIS.ORG|date=2017-01-24|newspaper=[:en]Ukraine crisis media center [:ua]Український кризовий медіа-центр <!--[:fr]Ukraine crisis media center [:de]Ukrainisches Krisen-Medienzentrum [:ru]Украинский кризисный медиа-центр [:es]Ukraine crisis media center [:it]Ukraine crisis media center [:pt]Ukraine crisis media center[:]-->|access-date=2017-02-19|language=en-US}}</ref> The plan would give Russian-backed political entities partial control of the electorate and has been described by ''Zerkalo Nedeli'' as "implanting a cancerous cell into Ukraine's body."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21716632-reintegrating-donbas-starting-look-russian-trap-ukraines-leaders-may-be-giving-up|title=Ukraine's leaders may be giving up on reuniting the country|newspaper=The Economist|date=11 February 2017|access-date=2017-02-19}}</ref> This was never implemented, and was subject to public protest.
A 2018 survey by Sociological Group "Rating" of residents of the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas found that 82% of respondents believed there was no discrimination against Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.<ref name=ratin2>{{Cite report |url=https://texty.org.ua/fragments/64483/Sociologija_ideji_ruskogo_myru_v_neokupovanomu_Donbasi-64483/| title=Соціологія: ідеї руського миру в неокупованому Донбасі скоріше маргінальні |date=13 January 2016 |publisher=Sociological Group "Rating"|lang=Ukrainian}}</ref> Only 11% saw some evidence of discrimination.<ref name=ratin2/> The same survey also found that 71% of respondents did not support Russia's military intervention to "protect" the Russian-speaking population, with only 9% offering support for that action.<ref name=ratin2/> Another survey by Rating, conducted in 2019, found that only 23% of those Ukrainians polled supported granting the Donbas autonomous status,<ref name="sdshjhh5">{{Cite news |date=2 October 2019 |title=ATTITUDES OF UKRAINIANS TOWARDS THE OCCUPIED TERRITORIES ISSUE SOLUTION |work=Sociological Group "Rating" |url=https://ratinggroup.ua/en/research/ukraine/otnoshenie_ukraincev_k_resheniyu_voprosa_okkupirovannyh_territoriy.html |access-date=2022-03-03}}</ref> whilst 34% supported a ceasefire and "freezing" the conflict, 23% supported military action to recover the occupied Donbas territories, and 6% supported separating these territories from Ukraine.<ref name="sdshjhh5"/>
==== Full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine ==== {{Main|Eastern Ukraine campaign}} On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60468237|title=Russia recognises Ukraine separatist regions as independent states|date=21 February 2022 |publisher=BBC News|access-date=21 February 2022|archive-date=21 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220221205402/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60468237|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Locals in Ukraine breakaway regions recount short-lived joy, hope |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1/residents-of-ukraines-breakaways-recount-short-lived-joy-hope |publisher=Al Jazeera|date=1 March 2022}}</ref> effectively killing the Minsk agreements.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Rathke |first=Jeff |date=27 February 2022 |title=Putin Accidentally Started a Revolution in Germany |language=en-US |work=Foreign Policy |url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/27/putin-war-ukraine-germany-scholz-revolution/ |access-date=2022-03-03}}</ref> Russia subsequently launched a new, full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which Russian president Vladimir Putin said was intended to "protect" the people of the Donbas from the "abuse" and "genocide" of the Ukrainian government.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Russia launches "full-scale invasion" of Ukraine, sparks international outcry |work=Kyodo News |url=https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022/02/38c884e2b35b-russia-vows-strong-response-to-us-sanctions-amid-ukraine-crisis.html |access-date=2022-03-03}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ukraine-Russia crisis: Ukraine: Russia has launched 'full-scale invasion'|work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60454795|access-date=2022-02-24|language=en-gb}}</ref> However, Putin's claims have been refuted.<ref>{{cite news |title=Putin's claims that Ukraine is committing genocide are baseless, but not unprecedented |url=https://theconversation.com/putins-claims-that-ukraine-is-committing-genocide-are-baseless-but-not-unprecedented-177511 |work=The Conversation |date=25 February 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=PolitiFact – Vladimir Putin repeats false claim of genocide in Ukraine |language=en-US |url=https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/25/vladimir-putin/putin-repeats-long-running-claim-genocide-ukraine/ |access-date=2022-03-03|location=Washington, DC}}</ref> The DPR and LPR joined Russia's operation; the separatists stated that an operation to capture the entirety of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast had begun.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last1=Troianovski|first1=Anton|last2=MacFarquhar|first2=Neil|date=2022-02-23|title=Ukraine Live Updates: Russia Begins Invasion From Land and Sea|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/24/world/russia-ukraine-putin|access-date=2022-02-24|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
On 18 April 2022, the battle of Donbas began, a Russian offensive in mid-2022 within the larger eastern Ukraine campaign.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.firstpost.com/world/battle-of-donbas-begins-why-russia-has-turned-its-attention-to-east-of-ukraine-10577811.html|title=Battle of Donbas begins: Why Russia has turned its attention to east of Ukraine|work=Firstpost|date=20 April 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/ukraine-says-battle-donbas-has-begun-russia-pushing-east-2022-04-18|title=Ukraine says 'Battle of Donbas' has begun, Russia pushing in east|work=Reuters|date=18 April 2022 }}</ref>
==Demographics== ===Ethnicity and language=== 250px|thumb|Districts with a majority of native Russian speakers are shown in red (census 2001). Donbas is the most densely populated area of Ukraine. The easternmost part of the region is located outside of the Ukrainian ethnic territory.<ref name=ency/> [[File:Donetsk dynamics.png|thumb|300px|Demographic changes in Donetsk Oblast: the upper two columns depict language change over time, the lower two – nationality (национальность) proportions. {{legend inline|OrangeRed|Russian}}, {{legend inline|DodgerBlue|Ukrainian}}, {{legend inline|LightGrey|others}} (according to official censuses in 1926, 2001).]] According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. Ethnic Russians form the largest minority, accounting for 39% and 38.2% of the two oblasts respectively.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/ |title=About number and composition population of UKRAINE by data All-Ukrainian population census 2001 data |date=2004 |publisher=State Statistics Committee of Ukraine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111217151026/http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/nationality/ |archive-date=17 December 2011 }}</ref> In the present day, the Donbas is a predominately Russophone region. According to the 2001 census, Russian is the main language of 74.9% of residents in Donetsk Oblast and 68.8% in Luhansk Oblast.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/eng/results/general/language/|title=Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 – English version – Results – General results of the census –& Linguistic composition of the population|website=2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua}}</ref>
Residents of Russian origin are mainly concentrated in the larger urban centers. Russian became the main language and ''lingua franca'' in the course of industrialization, boosted by the immigration of many Russians, particularly from Kursk Oblast, to newly founded cities in the Donbas. A subject of continuing research controversies, and often denied in these two oblasts, is the extent of forced emigration and deaths during the Soviet period, which particularly affected rural Ukrainians during the Holodomor which resulted as a consequence of early Soviet industrialization policies combined with two years of drought throughout southern Ukraine and the Volga region.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html|title=Ukrainian 'Holodomor' (man-made famine) Facts and History|website=holodomorct.org|access-date=17 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130424093532/http://www.holodomorct.org/history.html|archive-date=24 April 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://faminegenocide.com/resources/causes.html|title=The Cause and the Consequences of Famines in Soviet Ukraine|website=faminegenocide.com|access-date=19 March 2018|archive-date=15 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315130819/http://faminegenocide.com/resources/causes.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Nearly all Ukrainian Jews either fled or were murdered in the Holocaust in Ukraine during the German occupation in World War II. The Donbas is about 6% Muslim according to the official censuses of 1926 and 2001.
According to linguist George Shevelov, in the early 1920s the proportion of secondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian language was lower than the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas<ref name=ShevelovSUM14>[http://balticworlds.com/games-from-the-past/ Games from the Past: The continuity and change of the identity dynamic in Donbas from a historical perspective ], Södertörn University (19 May 2014)</ref> – even though the Soviet Union had ordered{{when|date=September 2014}} that all schools in the Ukrainian SSR should be Ukrainian-speaking (as part of its Ukrainization policy).<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Nn3xDTiL0PQC&q=%22official+language%22&pg=PA1 Language Policy in the Soviet Union] by Lenore Grenoble, Springer Science+Business Media, 2003, {{ISBN|978-1-4020-1298-3}} (page 84)</ref>
===Religion=== {{Pie chart |thumb = left |caption = Religion in Donbas (2016)<ref name=Razumkov2016>[http://old.razumkov.org.ua/upload/Religiya_200516_A4.compressed.pdf РЕЛІГІЯ, ЦЕРКВА, СУСПІЛЬСТВО І ДЕРЖАВА: ДВА РОКИ ПІСЛЯ МАЙДАНУ (''Religion, Church, Society and State: Two Years after Maidan'')] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170422181327/http://old.razumkov.org.ua/upload/Religiya_200516_A4.compressed.pdf |date=22 April 2017 }}, 2016 report by Razumkov Center in collaboration with the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches. pp. 27–29.</ref> |label1 = Eastern Orthodoxy |value1 = 50.6 |color1 = Orchid |label2 = Non-denominational Christianity |value2 = 11.9 |color2 = Turquoise |label3 = Islam |value3 = 6 |color3 = Green |label4 = Protestantism |value4 = 2.5 |color4 = DodgerBlue |label5 = Hinduism |value5 = 0.6 |color5 = Orange |label6 = Not religious |value6 = 28.3 |color6 = Honeydew }}
According to a 2016 survey of religion in Ukraine held by the Razumkov Center, 65.0% of the population in the Donbas believe in Christianity (including 50.6% Orthodox, 11.9% who declared themselves to be "simply Christians", and 2.5% who belonged to Protestant churches). Islam is the religion of 6% of the population of the Donbas and Hinduism of the 0.6%, both the religions with a share of the population that is higher compared to other regions of Ukraine. People who declared to be not believers or believers in some other religions, not identifying in one of those listed, were 28.3% of the population.<ref name=Razumkov2016/>
===Identity and politics=== [[File:2016-05-09. День Победы в Донецке 085.jpg|thumb|World War II Victory Day celebration in Donetsk, 9 May 2016]] Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbas residents claim to have a "Soviet identity".<ref>[http://www.taraskuzio.net/Comparative%20Politics_files/SovietCulture_Conspiracy_Yanukovych.pdf Soviet conspiracy theories and political culture in Ukraine:Understanding Viktor Yanukovych and the Party of Region] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140516205435/http://www.taraskuzio.net/Comparative%20Politics_files/SovietCulture_Conspiracy_Yanukovych.pdf |date=16 May 2014 }} by Taras Kuzio (23 August 2011)</ref> Roman Horbyk of Södertörn University wrote that in the 20th century, "[a]s peasants from all surrounding regions were flooding its then busy mines and plants on the border of ethnically Ukrainian and Russian territories", "incomplete and archaic institutions" prevented Donbas residents from "acquiring a notably strong modern urban – and also national – new identity".<ref name=ShevelovSUM14/>
Prior to the Revolution of Dignity, the politics of the region were dominated by the pro-Russian Party of Regions, which gained about 50% of Donbas votes in the 2008 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Prominent members of that party, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, were from the Donbas.
===Major urban areas=== thumb|Donetsk, the economic center of Donbas *Donetsk-Makiivka agglomeration<ref name=ency/> *Luhansk<ref name=ency/> *Horlivka-Yenakiieve agglomeration<ref name=ency/> *Kostiantynivka-Druzhkivka-Kramatorsk-Sloviansk<ref name=ency/> *Kadiivka-Alchevsk-Perevalsk-Irmino-Pervomaisk<ref name=ency/> *Lysychansk-Rubizhne-Siverodonetsk<ref name=ency/>
==Economy== {{Main|Coal in Ukraine}} {{See also|Economy of Ukraine}} thumb|Donets Coal Basin Donbas is the biggest industrial area in Ukraine and whole of Eastern Europe. Dominated by coal mining, metallurgy, machine building and chemical industry, the region has a beneficial geographic location, with sea routes, as well as sources of iron ore and manganese being located at a relatively short distance. Donbas has a dense railway network and has access to major waterways, such as Don, Volga and the Caspian Sea.<ref name=ency/>
The Donbas' economy is dominated by heavy industry, such as coal mining and metallurgy. The region takes its name from an abbreviation of the term "Donets Coal Basin" ({{langx|uk|Донецький вугільний басейн}}, {{langx|ru|Донецкий угольный бассейн}}), and while annual extraction of coal has decreased since the 1970s, the Donbas remains a significant producer. The Donbas represents one of the largest coal reserves in Ukraine, with estimated reserves of 60 billion tonnes of coal.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://ea.donntu.edu.ua:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/5039/1/Privalov%20et%20al_BHM.pdf|title= Coal in Ukraine|year= 2012|publisher= edu.ua|access-date= 2013-07-23|archive-date= 15 December 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171215103034/http://ea.donntu.edu.ua:8080/jspui/bitstream/123456789/5039/1/Privalov%20et%20al_BHM.pdf|url-status= dead}}</ref> The layer of carbon in the area reaches the thicknes of 2-4 kilometers. 80% of Donbas coal is located in the territory of Ukraine, with the rest being produced in Russia. Central and southwestern areas have deposits of coking coal, while in the northwest gas coal dominates. Central, southeastern and eastern areas of Donbas are rich with anthracite coal. Donbas coal is characterized with high shares of cinder and sulphur, which makes it less suitable for coking. Thinness of separate coal layers (form several centimeters to 2 meters) makes part of the coal impossible to retrieve unless underground gasification is employed.<ref name=ency/>
Coal mining in the Donbas is conducted at very large depths. Lignite mining takes place at around {{convert|600|m|ft}} below the surface, whilst mining for the more valuable anthracite and bituminous coal takes place at depths of around {{convert|1800|m|ft}}.<ref name="ew2"/> Prior to the start of the region's war in April 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts together produced about 30 percent of Ukraine's exports.<ref name="ELF16">{{cite book | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IPNoAAAAMAAJ | title= Europe's Last Frontier? | publisher= Palgrave Macmillan | editor= Oliver Schmidtke | year=2008 | location= New York | page= 97 | isbn= 978-0-230-60372-1}}</ref> thumb|Economy of the Ukrainian Donbas Among other valuable resources present in the Donbas region are salt, marl, limestone, clay and other construction materials, as well as smaller deposits of various ores. The biggest salt deposits are located in the area of Bakhmut (rock salt) and Sloviansk (cooking salt). Quicksilver deposits, by now mostly depleted, are present in the area of Mykytivka. In parts of the polymetallic ores such as zinc, tin, copper, silver and gold are present. Until the early 20th century, small amounts of poor iron ores were produces in the southwestern part of Donbas and around Bakhmut. Large deposits of flux limestones are present in the vicinity of Olenivka. Near Amvrosiivka, marl deposits have contributed to the development of cement production. Fire clay is produced in the areas of Chasiv Yar and Druzhkivka. Gypsum is present around Bakhmut, chalk along the Donets river, clay near Sloviansk, ochre in the vicinity of Izium, kaolin near Volnovakha. <ref name=ency/>
Other industries in the Donetsk region include blast-furnace and steel-making equipment, railway freight-cars, metal-cutting machine-tools, tunneling machines, agricultural harvesters and ploughing systems, railway tracks, mining cars, electric locomotives, military vehicles, tractors and excavators. The region also produces consumer goods like household washing-machines, refrigerators, freezers, TV sets, leather footwear, and toilet soap. Over half its production is exported,{{when|date=February 2022}} and about 22% is exported to Russia.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://mfa.gov.ua/en/about-ukraine/info/regions/25-doneck|title= Donets'k Region – Regions of Ukraine – MFA of Ukraine|website= mfa.gov.ua}}</ref>
In mid-March 2017, Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on a temporary ban on the movement of goods to and from territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic, so since then Ukraine does not buy coal from the Donets Coal Basin.<ref>[https://economics.unian.info/2338645-ukrainian-energy-industry-thorny-road-of-reform.html Ukrainian energy industry: thorny road of reform], Ukrainian Independent Information Agency (10 January 2018)</ref>
Shale gas reserves, part of the larger Dnieper–Donets basin,<ref>{{cite web |title=Assessment of Undiscovered Continuous Oil and Gas Resources in the Dnieper-Donets Basin and North Carpathian Basin Provinces, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and Poland, 2015 |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2016/3082/fs20163082.pdf |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey}}</ref> are present in the Donbas, most notably the Yuzivska gas field.<ref name="fdg4">{{Cite book |last=Gent |first=Stephen E. |title=Market power politics : war, institutions, and strategic delays in world politics |date=2021 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-752984-3 |location=New York, NY |page=159 |oclc=1196822660}}</ref> In an effort to reduce Ukrainian dependence on Russian gas imports, the Ukrainian government reached an agreement with Royal Dutch Shell in 2012 to develop the Yuzivska field.<ref name="fdg4" /> Shell was forced to freeze operations after the outbreak of war in the region in 2014, and officially withdrew from the project in June 2015.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Olearchyk |first=Roman |date=2015-06-11 |title=Shell to withdraw from shale gas exploration in eastern Ukraine |work=Financial Times |url=https://www.ft.com/content/0c66011e-104a-11e5-bd70-00144feabdc0 |access-date=2022-03-08}}</ref>
In 2013 (before war) GDP of Donbas was ₴220 billion (€20 billion).<ref>{{Citation|url=http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/operativ/operativ2020/vvp/vrp/vrp2019_ue.xls|title=Gross regional product in 2004-2019|archivedate=2021-05-23|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523094611/http://www.ukrstat.gov.ua/operativ/operativ2020/vvp/vrp/vrp2019_ue.xls}}</ref> The Gross regional product of Donbas was ₴335 billion (€10 billion) in 2021.<ref>{{cite web |title="Валовии регіональнии продукт" |url=https://ukrstat.gov.ua/druk/publicat/kat_u/2023/05/zb_vrp_2021.xlsx |website=ukrstat.gov.ua |access-date=25 September 2023 |language=uk}}</ref>
===Occupational safety in the coal industry=== The coal mines of the Donbas are some of the most hazardous in the world because of the deep depths of mines, as well as frequent methane explosions, coal-dust explosions, rock burst dangers, and outdated infrastructure.<ref name="web.ebscohost.com">Grumau, S. (2002). Coal mining in Ukraine. Economic Review. 44.</ref> Even more hazardous illegal coal mines became very common across the region in the late 2000s.<ref name="racket">{{cite news | url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22170976 | title= The coal-mining racket threatening Ukraine's economy | publisher=BBC News | date=23 April 2013 | access-date=18 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="Illegal mines">{{cite news | url= http://www.kyivpost.com/news/business/bus_general/detail/108242/ | title= Illegal mines profitable, but at massive cost to nation | work=Kyiv Post | date=8 July 2011 | access-date=18 September 2013 | author=Panova, Kateryna}}</ref>
===Environmental problems=== [[File:Kalmius 01.jpg|thumb|Coal-mining spoil tips along the Kalmius river in Donetsk]] Intensive coal-mining and smelting in the Donbas have led to severe damage to the local environment. The most common problems throughout the region include: *water-supply disruption and flooding due to the mine water *visible air pollution around coke and steel mills *air/water contamination and mudslide threat from spoil tips Additionally, several chemical waste-disposal sites in the Donbas have not been maintained, and pose a constant threat to the environment. One unusual threat is the result of the Soviet-era {{ill|1979 project|uk|Ядерний вибух у Донецькій області}} to test experimental nuclear mining in Yenakiieve. For example, on 16 September 1979, at the Yunkom coal mine, known today as the Young Communard mine in Yenakiyeve, a 300kt nuclear test explosion was conducted at 900m to free methane gas or to degasified coal seams into a sandstone oval dome known as the Klivazh [Rift] Site so that methane would not pose a hazard or threat to life.<ref name=UkrainianWeek16042018>{{citation | last = Kazanskyi | first = Denys | title = Disaster in the making: The "DPR government" has announced its intention to flood the closed Young Communard mine in Yenakiyeve. 40 years ago, nuclear tests were carried out in it, and nobody knows today what the consequences would be if groundwater erodes the radioactive rock | url = http://ukrainianweek.com/Society/212456 | work = The Ukrainian Week | date = 16 April 2018 | access-date = 5 October 2018}}</ref> Before Glasnost, no miners were informed of the presence of radioactivity at the mine, however.<ref name=UkrainianWeek16042018/>
==Culture and religion== thumb|Sviatohirsk Lavra Sviatohirsk ({{Literal translation|Holy Mountain City}}) is the main religious sanctuary of the region. The Sviatohirsk Lavra is located near the city. The monastery was restored following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine. In 2004 the monastery was granted the status of lavra. In 1997 the area around the monastery was turned into the Holy Mountains National Nature Park.
==See also== {{Portal|Europe|Geography}} * {{annotated link|Donbas Arena}} * HC Donbass – An ice hockey team based in Donetsk bearing the name of the region * {{annotated link|Kryvbas}} * {{annotated link|Russians in Ukraine}}
==Notes== {{Reflist|group=note}} {{clear}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{sister project links|c=Category:Donbas|d=yes|voy=yes|q=no|n=no|b=no|v=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|s=no|species=no}} * [http://midwestdiplomacy.com/2015/02/27/deconstructing-the-donbass/ "Deconstructing the Donbass", overview of the 2014–2015 conflict], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019035844/http://midwestdiplomacy.com/2015/02/27/deconstructing-the-donbass/ |date=19 October 2017 }} ''midwestdiplomacy.com'' * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22170976 "The coal-mining racket threatening Ukraine's economy"] by BBC News * [http://donbass.men Bulletin board "Объявления Донбасса"], {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407222325/http://donbass.men/ |date=7 April 2022 }} ''donbass.men''
{{Ukrainian historical regions}}
{{Authority control}}
Category:Donbas Category:Regions of Russia Category:Geographic regions of Ukraine Category:Economy of Ukraine Category:Geography of Donetsk Oblast Category:Geography of Luhansk Oblast Category:Geography of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Category:Geography of Rostov Oblast