A map showing the present-day definition of the Donbas withinUkraineMap of the historical region of Donbas, within modern-day Ukraine and theRostov Oblast of RussiaGeology of Ukraine
The wordDonbas is aportmanteau formed from "Donets Basin", an abbreviation of "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian:Донецький вугільний басейн,romanized: Donetskyi vuhilnyi basein;Russian:Донецкий угольный бассейн,romanized: Donetskiy ugolnyy basseyn). The name of the coal basin is a reference to theDonets Ridge; the latter is associated with theDonets river.
The Donbas formed the historical border between theZaporizhian Sich and theDon Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.[17]
The region has been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic tribes, such asScythians,Alans,Huns,Bulgars,Pechenegs,Kipchaks,Turco-Mongols,Tatars andNogais. The region now known as the Donbas was largely unpopulated until the second half of the 17th century, whenDon Cossacks established the first permanent settlements in the region.[22]
The first town in the region was founded in 1676, called Solanoye (nowSoledar), which was built for the profitable business of exploiting newly discovered rock-salt reserves. Known for being aCossack land, the "Wild Fields" (Ukrainian:дике поле,dyke pole), the area that is now called the Donbas was largely under the control of the UkrainianCossack Hetmanate and the TurkicCrimean Khanate until the mid-late 18th century, when theRussian Empire conquered the Hetmanate and annexed the Khanate.[23][24]
In the second half of the 17th century, settlers and fugitives fromHetman's Ukraine andMuscovy settled the lands north of theDonets river.[25] At the end of the 18th century, manyRussians,Ukrainians,Serbs andGreeks migrated to lands along the southern course of the Donets river, into an area previously inhabited by nomadicNogais, who were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate.[25][26] Tsarist Russia named the conquered territories "New Russia" (Russian:Новороссия,Novorossiya). As theIndustrial Revolution took hold across Europe, the vastcoal resources of the region, discovered in 1721, began to be exploited in the mid-late 19th century.[27]
A map of the sparsely populatedWild Fields in the 17th century
It was at this point that the nameDonbas came into use, derived from the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian:Донецький вугільний басейн; Russian:Донецкий каменноугольный бассейн), referring to the area along theDonets 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.[28]
Donetsk, the most important city in the region today, was founded in 1869 byWelsh businessmanJohn Hughes on the site of the oldZaporozhian Cossack town of Oleksandrivka. Hughes built a steel mill and established severalcollieries in the region. The city was named after him as Yuzivka (Ukrainian:Юзівка) or Yuzovka (Russian:Юзовка). With the development of Yuzovka and similar cities, large numbers of landless peasants from peripheralgovernorates of the Russian Empire came looking for work.[29]
According to theRussian 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%.[30] Ethnic Greeks,Germans,Jews andTatars also had a significant presence in the Donbas, particularly in thedistrict ofMariupol, where they constituted 36.7% of the population.[31] 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.[32] Those Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were quickly assimilated into the Russian-speaking worker class.[33]
A Soviet Russian propaganda poster from 1921 that says "The Donbas is the heart of Russia"
In April 1918 troops loyal to theUkrainian People's Republic took control of large parts of the region.[34] For a while, its government bodies operated in the Donbas alongside theirRussian Provisional Government equivalents.[35] TheUkrainian 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 itsGerman andAustro-Hungarian allies.[35]
Along with other territories inhabited by Ukrainians, the Donbas was incorporated into theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Cossacks in the region were subjected todecossackisation during 1919–1921.[36] Ukrainians in the Donbas were greatly affected by the 1932–33Holodomor famine and theRussification policy ofJoseph Stalin. As most ethnic Ukrainians were rural peasant farmers, they bore the brunt of the famine.[37][38]
The Donbas was greatly affected by theSecond 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.[39]Nazi Germany's leaderAdolf Hitler viewed the resources of the Donbas as critical toOperation Barbarossa. As such, the Donbas suffered under Nazi occupation during 1941 and 1942.[40]
Thousands of industrial labourers were deported toNazi Germany for use in factories. In what was then called StalinoOblast, nowDonetsk Oblast, 279,000 civilians were killed over the course of the occupation. In Voroshilovgrad Oblast, nowLuhansk Oblast, 45,649 were killed.[41]
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.[42] As a result of theRussification policy, the Ukrainian population of the Donbass then declined drastically as ethnic Russians settled in the region in large numbers.[43] 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.[44][45] By the time of theSoviet Census of 1989, 45% of the population of the Donbas reported their ethnicity as Russian.[46] In 1990, theInterfront of the Donbass was founded as a movement against Ukrainian independence.
In the1991 referendum on Ukrainian independence, 83.9% of voters in Donetsk Oblast and 83.6% in Luhansk Oblast supported independence from theSoviet Union. Turnout was 76.7% in Donetsk Oblast and 80.7% in Luhansk Oblast.[47] In October 1991, a congress of South-Eastern deputies from all levels of government took place in Donetsk, where delegates demanded federalisation.[35]
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 inKyiv 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".[47]
This strike was followed by a 1994 consultative referendum on various constitutional questions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, held concurrently with thefirst parliamentary elections in independent Ukraine.[48] 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 theCommonwealth of Independent States.[49] Close to 90% of voters voted in favour of these propositions.[50] None of them were adopted since the vote was nationwide. Ukraine remained aunitary state, Ukrainian was retained as the sole official language, and the Donbas gained no autonomy.[46] Nevertheless, the Donbas strikers gained many economic concessions from Kyiv, allowing for an alleviation of the economic crisis in the region.[47]
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 theWorld Bank.[47]
In 1994, Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom signed theBudapest Memorandum prohibited the signatories to from threaten or use military force or economic coercion against Ukraine, amongst others.
Power in the Donbas became concentrated in a regional political elite, known asoligarchs, 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.[47] Prominent members of the "clan" includedViktor Yanukovych andRinat Akhmetov.
A total of 3,576 delegates from 16oblasts of Ukraine,Crimea andSevastopol took part in the congress, claiming to represent over 35 million citizens. Moscow MayorYurii 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 orprime minister, for declaring of martial law in Ukraine, dissolution of theVerkhovna Rada, creation of self-defence forces, and for the creation of a federative South-Eastern state with its capital inKharkiv.[51][52]
Donetsk MayorOleksandr 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.[53][54]
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 theNarodne 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".[55] 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 afterCommunist figures compared to the rest of Ukraine.[56] Despite this portrayal, surveys taken across that decade and during the 1990s showed strong support for remaining within Ukraine and insignificant support for separatism.[57]
A map of the region during the frozen conflict phase of the Donbas war, from the conclusion of theBattle of Debaltseve in 2015 until the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Amid that conflict, the self-proclaimed republics heldreferendums 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.[60][note 3]
The initial protests in the Donbas were largely native expressions of discontent with the new Ukrainian government.[62] 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.[62][63] This unrest, however, only evolved into an armed conflict because of Russian military backing for what had been a marginal group as part of theRusso-Ukrainian War. The conflict was thus, in the words of historian Hiroaki Kuromiya, "secretly engineered and cleverly camouflaged by outsiders".[64]
There was limited support for separatism in the Donbas before the outbreak of the war, and little evidence of support for an armed uprising.[65] 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 byVoice of America.[64][66]
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.[67] In response to the deteriorating situation in the Donbas, Russia abandoned what has been called its "hybrid war" approach, and begana conventional invasion of the region.[67][68] 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.[69]
Only this Russian intervention prevented an immediate Ukrainian resolution to the conflict.[70][71][72] This forced the Ukrainian side to seek the signing of a ceasefire agreement.[73] Called theMinsk Protocol, this was signed on 5 September 2014.[74] As this failed to stop the fighting, another agreement, calledMinsk II was signed on 12 February 2015.[75] This agreement called for the eventual reintegration of the Donbas republics into Ukraine, with a level of autonomy.[75] 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.[76] The Minsk agreements were thus highly favourable to the Russian side, as their implementation would accomplish these goals.[77]
The conflict led to a vast exodus from the Donbas: half the region's population were forced to flee their homes.[78] AUN 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.[79] 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,[79] comprising about one-third of the Donbas.[80]
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.[81][82][83] This led the war to be referred to as a "frozen conflict".[84]On 11 January 2017, the Ukrainian government approved a plan to reintegrate the occupied part of the Donbas and its population into Ukraine.[85] The plan would give Russian-backed political entities partial control of the electorate and has been described byZerkalo Nedeli as "implanting a cancerous cell into Ukraine's body."[86] This was never implemented, and was subject to public protest.
A 2018 survey bySociological 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.[87] Only 11% saw some evidence of discrimination.[87] 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.[87] Another survey by Rating, conducted in 2019, found that only 23% of those Ukrainians polled supported granting the Donbas autonomous status,[88] 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.[88]
On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised theindependence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics,[89][90] effectively killing theMinsk agreements.[91] Russia subsequently launched a new,full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which Russian presidentVladimir Putin said was intended to "protect" the people of the Donbas from the "abuse" and "genocide" of the Ukrainian government.[92][93] However, Putin's claims have been refuted.[94][95] 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.[96]
Districts with a majority of native Russian speakers are shown in red (census 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.[99] In the present day, the Donbas is a predominatelyRussophone 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.[100]
Residents of Russian origin are mainly concentrated in the larger urban centers. Russian became the main language andlingua franca in the course of industrialization, boosted by the immigration of many Russians, particularly fromKursk 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.[101][102]
Prior to the Revolution of Dignity, the politics of the region were dominated by the pro-RussianParty of Regions, which gained about 50% of Donbas votes in the2008 Ukrainian parliamentary election. Prominent members of that party, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, were from the Donbas.
Demographic changes inDonetsk Oblast: the upper two columns depict language change over time, the lower two – nationality (национальность) proportions. Russian, Ukrainian, others (according to official censuses in1926,2001).
According to linguistGeorge Shevelov, in the early 1920s the proportion ofsecondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian language was lower than the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas[103] – even though the Soviet Union had ordered[when?] that all schools in theUkrainian SSR should be Ukrainian-speaking (as part of itsUkrainization policy).[104]
Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbas residents claim to have a "Soviet identity".[105]Roman Horbyk ofSödertörn 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".[103]
According to a 2016 survey ofreligion in Ukraine held by theRazumkov Center, 65.0% of the population in the Donbas believe inChristianity (including 50.6% Orthodox, 11.9% who declared themselves to be "simply Christians", and 2.5% who belonged toProtestant churches).Islam is the religion of 6% of the population of the Donbas andHinduism 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.[106]
In 2013 (before war) GDP of Donbas was ₴220 billion (€20 billion).[108]
The Donbas' economy is dominated byheavy industry, such ascoal mining andmetallurgy. The region takes its name from an abbreviation of the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian:Донецький вугільний басейн,Russian: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.[109]
Coal mining in the Donbas is conducted at very deep depths. Lignite mining takes place at around 600 metres (2,000 ft) below the surface, whilst mining for the more valuableanthracite andbituminous coal takes place at depths of around 1,800 metres (5,900 ft).[27] 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.[110]
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?] and about 22% is exported to Russia.[111]
In mid-March 2017, Ukrainian presidentPetro 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.[112]
Shale gas reserves, part of the largerDnieper–Donets basin,[113] are present in the Donbas, most notably theYuzivska gas field.[114] In an effort to reduce Ukrainian dependence on Russian gas imports, the Ukrainian government reached an agreement withRoyal Dutch Shell in 2012 to develop the Yuzivska field.[114] 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.[115]
Occupational safety in the coal industry
The coal mines of the Donbas are some of the mosthazardous in the world because of the deep depths of mines, as well as frequentmethane explosions,coal-dust explosions,rock burst dangers, and outdated infrastructure.[116] Even more hazardous illegal coal mines became very common across the region in the late 2000s.[17][117]
Intensive coal-mining andsmelting 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 themine water
Additionally, severalchemical 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-era1979 project [uk] to test experimentalnuclear mining inYenakiieve. For example, on 16 September 1979, at theYunkom 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 theKlivazh [Rift] Site so that methane would not pose a hazard or threat to life.[118] BeforeGlasnost, no miners were informed of the presence of radioactivity at the mine, however.[118]
^Most of Donbas is under Russian occupation. Russia considers Donetsk and Luhansk regions as its administrative divisions since 2022.
^Most definitions of the Donbas include portions ofRostov Oblast
^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.[61][60]
^Andrew Wilson (April 1995). "The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes".Journal of Contemporary History.30 (2): 274.JSTOR261051.
^"Soviet order to exterminate Cossacks is unearthed".University of York. 19 November 2010. Retrieved11 September 2014.'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. [...]'
^Potocki, Robert (2003).Polityka państwa polskiego wobec zagadnienia ukraińskiego w latach 1930–1939 (in Polish and English). Lublin: Instytut Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej.ISBN978-8-391-76154-0.
^Andrew Wilson (April 1995). "The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes".Journal of Contemporary History.30 (2): 275.JSTOR261051.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).
^Andrew Wilson (April 1995). "The Donbas between Ukraine and Russia: The Use of History in Political Disputes".Journal of Contemporary History.30 (2): 275.JSTOR261051.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.
^Hryhorii Nemyria (1999).Regional Identity and Interests: The Case of East Ukraine. Studies in Contemporary History and Security Policy.{{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help)
^Snyder, Timothy (3 April 2018).The road to unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (First ed.). New York. p. 191.ISBN978-0-525-57446-0.OCLC1029484935.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^abGent, Stephen E. (2021).Market power politics : war, institutions, and strategic delays in world politics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 159.ISBN978-0-19-752984-3.OCLC1196822660.
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