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.
Image: A Russia backed rebel armored fighting vehicles convoy near Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, May 30, 2015
Image: A Russia backed rebel looking though firing port at his position near Donetsk, Eastern Ukraine, May 26, 2015
Image: Ruins of Donetsk International airport (16)
Image: 2015 04 26 0314 (17283082376)
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary to the west; and Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv is the nation's capital and largest city, followed by Kharkiv, Dnipro and Odesa. Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian; Russian is also widely spoken, especially in the east and south.
Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic steppes of present-day Ukraine and Russia
The furthest extent of Kievan Rus', 1054–1132
Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky established an independent Cossack state after the 1648 uprising against Poland.
Polish troops enter Kyiv in May 1920 during the Polish–Soviet War. Following the Peace of Riga signed on 18 March 1921, Poland took control of modern-day western Ukraine while Soviets took control of eastern and central Ukraine.
