War in Donbas

The war in Donbas, or Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began 12 April 2014, when a fifty-man commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. It continued until it was subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In March 2014, following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, anti-revolution and pro-Russian protests began in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, collectively 'the Donbas'. These began as Russia invaded and annexed Crimea. Armed Russian-backed separatists seized Ukrainian government buildings and declared the Donetsk and Luhansk republics (DPR and LPR) as independent states, leading to conflict with Ukrainian government forces. Russia covertly supported the separatists with troops and weaponry. It only admitted sending "military specialists", but later acknowledged the separatists as Russian combat veterans. In April 2014, Ukraine launched a counter-offensive, called the "Anti-Terrorist Operation" (ATO), later renamed the "Joint Forces Operation" (JFO). By late August 2014, Ukraine had re-taken most separatist-held territory and nearly regained control of the Russia–Ukraine border. In response, Russia covertly sent troops, tanks and artillery into the Donbas. Ukrainian officials called this a Russian "stealth invasion". The Russian incursion helped pro-Russian forces regain much of the territory they had lost. Alexander Borodai, former 'Prime Minister' of the DPR, said 50,000 "Russian volunteers" had fought in the first five months.

Ukraine, Russia, the DPR and LPR signed a ceasefire agreement, the Minsk Protocol, in September 2014. Ceasefire breaches became rife, and heavy fighting resumed in January 2015, during which the separatists captured Donetsk Airport. A new ceasefire, Minsk II, was agreed on 12 February 2015. Immediately after, separatists renewed their offensive on Debaltseve and forced Ukraine's military to withdraw. After the fall of Debaltseve, skirmishes continued but the front line did not change. Both sides fortified their position by building networks of trenches, bunkers and tunnels, resulting in static trench warfare. Stalemate led to the war being called a "frozen conflict", but Donbas remained a war zone, with dozens killed monthly. In 2017, on average a Ukrainian soldier died in combat every three days, with an estimated 40,000 separatist and 6,000 Russian troops in the region. By the end of 2017, OSCE observers had counted around 30,000 people in military gear crossing from Russia at the two border checkpoints it was allowed to monitor, and documented military convoys crossing from Russia covertly. All sides agreed to a roadmap for ending the war in October 2019, but it remained unresolved. During 2021, Ukrainian fatalities rose sharply and Russian forces massed around Ukraine's borders. Russia officially recognized the DPR and LPR as independent states on 21 February 2022 and deployed troops to those territories. On 24 February, Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, subsuming the war in Donbas into it.

There were 29 failed ceasefires. About 14,000 people were killed in the war: 6,500 Russian and Russian proxy forces, 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and 3,400 civilians on both sides of the frontline. The vast majority of civilian casualties were in the first year.