Donbas#Economy

File:Yamnaya Steppe Pastoralists.jpg Steppe pastoralist ancestry{{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}}]]

File:Cumania (1200) eng.png 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.{{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}} The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans.{{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}}

The region has been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic tribes, such as Scythians, Alans, Huns, Bulgars, Pechenegs, Kipchaks, Turco-Mongols, Tatars and Nogais. 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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}}

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.{{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}} 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.{{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}} Tsarist Russia named the conquered territories "New Russia" ({{langx|ru|Новороссия|links=no}}, {{Transliteration|ru|Novorossiya}}). 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.{{cite encyclopedia | title=Donets Basin | encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica | year=2014}}

File:Ukraine-Dyke Pole.png in the 17th century]]

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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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%.{{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}} 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.{{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 }} 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.{{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}} Those Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were quickly assimilated into the Russian-speaking worker class.{{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 }}

{{See also|Battle for the Donbas (1919)|Donbas operation (1919)}}

File:The Donets Basin is the heart of Russia.jpg

In April 1918 troops loyal to the Ukrainian People's Republic took control of large parts of the region.{{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}} For a while, its government bodies operated in the Donbas alongside their Russian Provisional Government equivalents. 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.[https://ukrainianweek.com/Politics/225494 Lessons for the Donbas from two wars], The Ukrainian Week (16 January 2019)

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.

Along with other territories inhabited by Ukrainians, the Donbas was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Cossacks in the region were subjected to decossackisation during 1919–1921.{{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. [...]'

}} 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.{{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 }}{{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}}

{{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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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.

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.{{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)."}} 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.{{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."}} 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.{{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}}{{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}} By the time of the Soviet Census of 1989, 45% of the population of the Donbas reported their ethnicity as Russian.{{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}} In 1990, the Interfront of the Donbass was founded as a movement against Ukrainian independence.

File:Don Cossacks monument Luhansk.JPG 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.{{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}} In October 1991, a congress of South-Eastern deputies from all levels of government took place in Donetsk, where delegates demanded federalisation.

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".

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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

Close to 90% of voters voted in favour of these propositions.{{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}} 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. Nevertheless, the Donbas strikers gained many economic concessions from Kyiv, allowing for an alleviation of the economic crisis in the region.

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. Leonid Kuchma, who had won the 1994 presidential election with support from the Donbas and other areas in eastern Ukraine, was re-elected as president of Ukraine in 1999. President Kuchma gave economic aid to the Donbas, using development money to gain political support in the region.

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. Prominent members of the "clan" included Viktor Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov.

File:Другий тур 2010 по округах-en.png, 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|vertical-align=sup}} took place, organised by the supporters of Viktor Yanukovych.[https://zn.ua/internal/sezd_pobediteley.html The Congress of the Victors ("Съезд победителей")], Zerkalo Nedeli [in Russian], zn.ua[https://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/domestic/story/2004/11/041128_severodoneck "The Congress of Regions" took place in Sievierodonetsk] [in Ukrainian], www.bbc.com

A total of 3,576 delegates from 16 oblasts of Ukraine, 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.

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.[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[https://www.rbc.ru/politics/23/06/2005/5703baf09a7947afa08c8263 Ukrainian Governors are accused of separatism] [in Russian], www.rbc.ru

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".{{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}} 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.{{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}} Despite this portrayal, surveys taken across that decade and during the 1990s showed strong support for remaining within Ukraine and insignificant support for separatism.{{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}}

{{main|War in Donbas (2014–2022)}}

File:Donbas (2015–2022).svg 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.{{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}}{{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 }}

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.{{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 }}
{{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 }}{{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.[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.}}

The initial protests in the Donbas were largely native expressions of discontent with the new Ukrainian government.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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".{{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}}

There was limited support for separatism in the Donbas before the outbreak of the war, and little evidence of support for an armed uprising.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

File:OSCE SMM monitoring the movement of heavy weaponry in eastern Ukraine (16544083798).jpg

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.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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.{{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}}

Only this Russian intervention prevented an immediate Ukrainian resolution to the conflict.{{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 }}{{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}}{{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 }} This forced the Ukrainian side to seek the signing of a ceasefire agreement.{{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}} Called the Minsk Protocol, this was signed on 5 September 2014.{{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}} As this failed to stop the fighting, another agreement, called Minsk II was signed on 12 February 2015.{{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}} This agreement called for the eventual reintegration of the Donbas republics into Ukraine, with a level of autonomy. 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.{{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}} The Minsk agreements were thus highly favourable to the Russian side, as their implementation would accomplish these goals.{{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}}

The conflict led to a vast exodus from the Donbas: half the region's population were forced to flee their homes.{{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}} 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.{{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}} 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, comprising about one-third of the Donbas.{{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}}

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.{{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}}[http://tass.com/world/1038447 New Year ceasefire enters into force in Donbass], TASS (29 December 2018){{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}} This led the war to be referred to as a "frozen conflict".{{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 }}

On 11 January 2017, the Ukrainian government approved a plan to reintegrate the occupied part of the Donbas and its population into Ukraine.{{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 |access-date=2017-02-19|language=en-US}} 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."{{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}} 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.{{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}} Only 11% saw some evidence of discrimination. 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. Another survey by Rating, conducted in 2019, found that only 23% of those Ukrainians polled supported granting the Donbas autonomous status,{{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}} 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.

{{Main|Eastern Ukraine campaign}}

On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics,{{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}}{{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}} effectively killing the Minsk agreements.{{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}} 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.{{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}}{{cite web|title=Ukraine-Russia crisis: Ukraine: Russia has launched 'full-scale invasion'|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-60454795|access-date=2022-02-24|publisher=BBC News|language=en-gb}} However, Putin's claims have been refuted.{{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}}{{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}} 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.{{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}}

On 18 April 2022, the battle of Donbas began, a Russian offensive in mid-2022 within the larger eastern Ukraine campaign.{{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 }}{{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 }}

By September 2024, Russia had control of about 80% of the region.{{cite web|work=Reuters|title=Russian forces storming east Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, bloggers and media say|url=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-forces-storming-ukrainian-town-vuhledar-bloggers-media-say-2024-09-24/|date=25 September 2024}}

File:UkraineNativeLanguagesCensus2001detailed-en.png

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.{{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

}} 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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}{{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}}

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.

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.

File:Donetsk dynamics.png: 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 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[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) – 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).[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)

Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbas residents claim to have a "Soviet identity".[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) 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".

{{Pie chart

|thumb = left

|caption = Religion in Donbas (2016)[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.

|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

}}

File:2016-05-09. День Победы в Донецке 085.jpg celebration in Donetsk, 9 May 2016]]

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.

{{clear}}

{{Main|Coal in Ukraine}}

{{See also|Economy of Ukraine}}

File:Donets coal basin map.svg

File:Donbass economic.jpg

File:Donetsk Scherbakov Park.jpg

File:Сбор угля бедными на выработанной шахте.jpg: Donbas, 1894]]

The Gross regional product of Donbas was ₴335 billion (€10 billion) in 2021.{{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}}

In 2013 (before war) GDP of Donbas was ₴220 billion (€20 billion).{{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}}

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.{{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}}

Coal mining in the Donbas is conducted at very deep 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}}. 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.{{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}}

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.{{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}}

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.[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)

Shale gas reserves, part of the larger Dnieper–Donets basin,{{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}} are present in the Donbas, most notably the Yuzivska gas field.{{Cite book |last=Gent |first=Stephen E. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1196822660 |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}} 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. 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.{{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}}

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.Grumau, S. (2002). Coal mining in Ukraine. Economic Review. 44. Even more hazardous illegal coal mines became very common across the region in the late 2000s.{{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}}{{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}}

File:Kalmius 01.jpg 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|vertical-align=sup}} 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.{{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}} Before Glasnost, no miners were informed of the presence of radioactivity at the mine, however.

File:Svjatogorsk, Lavra 3.jpg

File:Savur-Mohyla.JPG]]

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 area around the monastery was turned into the Holy Mountains National Nature Park.

{{Portal|Europe|Geography}}

• Donbas Arena
• HC Donbass, an ice hockey team based in Donetsk bearing the name of the region
• Russians in Ukraine
• Kryvbas

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{{sisterlinks|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}}

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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