Who does Donbas historically really belong to?
As a native of Donbas and someone who knows the history of my homeland well, I couldn't help but laugh at Putin's latest nonsense claiming that Donbas has always been Russian.
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In this thread, I'll share brief historical facts about the region along with my own observations as a local. It might be a lot of text for casual scrolling, but it'll be valuable for anyone who genuinely wants to understand the issue — instead of swallowing empty, manipulative propaganda.
(In the photo: Donetsk, 2014)
#Ukraine #Donbas #RussianPropaganda 2/6 I'll start with my own memories.
I was born and spent my childhood in a small mining town in Donbas. Indeed, there were many Russians among the population — or people who identified as Russian. Most had relatives in Russia, and the overwhelming majority spoke Russian.
But here's what's interesting: everyone who had relatives in Russia was a descendant of migrants from Russia, not the other way around. These were people who had moved to Donbas in the 20th century, rather than locals whose families had emigrated to Russia.
As for truly local people — those whose roots stretched back to the 19th century or earlier in this land — there were very few. My great-grandmother was one of them. She had a distinctly Ukrainian surname and spoke Ukrainian.
Even from these personal observations, it's clear that Donbas only became partially Russian in the 20th century. How exactly that happened will be explained through historical facts further in this thread.

The time has come to debunk one of the myths of Russian propaganda.

I saw this tweet from a Russian asset and it made me laugh. But I realized that many foreigners have no knowledge of Ukrainian history. Therefore, I will try to write briefly about Stepan Bandera, his difference from Andrii Melnyk and the Ukrainian struggle for independence in the middle of the 20th century.

What did I mean when I said that I find it funny to read this piece of Russian propaganda? This is the fact that the Russian asset speaks positively about Melnyk, but most Ukrainians have a cool attitude towards Andriy Melnyk due to the fact that he at a certain period relied on cooperation with the Nazi government with the hope that the Germans would support the restoration of Ukraine's independence. And Stepan Bandera is a symbol of resistance to two bloody dictatorships - Nazism and Communism. This symbolism is clearly illustrated in his biography - Bandera was a prisoner of a German concentration camp, his brothers were killed by the Nazis, and Stepan was killed by communists from the KGB.
But we must start with the fact that after the First World War, Ukraine lost its independence after a short time and was occupied by several states, including the Soviet Union and Poland.

Ukrainians became the largest nation without its own state in Europe. This contributed to the fact that insurgents who fought for the independence of their state appeared on Ukrainian territory. These were different organizations, but in this context we will talk about the organization of Ukrainian nationalists.

Ukrainian nationalists differed from nationalists in some other European countries. If nationalism in imperialist countries is about domination over other nations, then Ukrainian nationalism is about restoring one's own state, culture and language of the Ukrainian nation. This is a consequence of the fact that Ukraine was an occupied colony for centuries.

The organization of Ukrainian nationalists existed mainly in the Ukrainian territories that were in Poland. However, the rebels declared the need to restore the Ukrainian state both on the territory of Poland and on the territory of the Soviet Union. Therefore, they represented a threat to both countries.

Stepan Bandera, together with other rebels, was arrested by the Polish authorities for rebel actions and sentenced to death. Then the Poles reduced the punishment and handed down a sentence - life imprisonment. It should be noted that even under the threat of the death penalty, Bandera did not betray his ideas and proclaimed that Ukraine should become independent.

At that time, the organization of Ukrainian nationalists was headed by Yevhen Konovalets. He actively worked on the diplomatic front and tried to raise the issue of Ukrainian sovereignty in the League of Nations. The Soviet Union did not like this. Therefore, a KGB agent killed Yevhen Konovalts in Rotterdam, where he had been living for the last time. Konovaltsy is buried at the Kroswijk cemetery in Rotterdam.

Continuation of my memories of the beginning of the war in Donbas in 2014.

At the beginning of April, the Kremlin moved to a new stage of the conflict - taking control of administrative buildings, completely suppressing pro-Ukrainian activists and creating falsified referendums… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… There are many facts about the fact that the Russians intervened in the situation in Ukraine and are involved in the seizure of administrative buildings.

One example is the seizure of the building of the Kharkiv State Administration. Then a pro-Russian rally attacked a rally in… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Continuation of the story about the beginning of the war in Donbas in 2014.  I remind you that these are my subjective memories of events as a resident of Donbass.  Some moments I could forget.  But the general picture remains true.

After Yanukovych's escape to Russia, the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… The same situation began to occur in Donetsk and some other regions.  Pro-Russian rallies, which consisted of real people who support Russia, and  sportsmens-"tituski", and provocateurs brought from Russia.
On March 13, the first Ukrainian to die in Donetsk was 22-year-old Dmytro… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

As a resident of Donbas, I was asked to tell about the beginning of war in Donbas in 2014.

But this is a long story. So I'll do it in a few threads over the next few days.

I realized that before I talk about the beginning of the war in Donbas, I need to talk a little about the… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… If we turn to the situation in Donbas, then it was calm there. There were also rallies in support of the Revolution of Dignity. Personally, I periodically traveled to Kyiv, and when I returned, I went to local protests.

The share of people who were wary of the possibility of… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

It was a difficult almost 2 months of fighting near Bakhmut. Yes, we could not always stop the enemy. But for every meter of our land, the enemy paid a lot of blood.
We did everything we could. And now we have a little rest. I wanted to write that "the enemy paid a high price for every meter of our land." But I saw with my own eyes that most of their soldiers are worthless to Russia.