A man walks past an abandoned building in the Donetsk region town of Avdiivka
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday recognised the independence of two separatist regions in eastern Ukraine - Donetsk, and Lugansk. The move has prompted several countries in the West, including the US, to impose sanctions on Russia.
- The two self-proclaimed rebel republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, whose independence Moscow recognised on Monday, are situated in the rust belt in eastern Ukraine. They are collectively part of the Donbass region of Eastern Ukraine.
- Donbass is an industrial hub based around mining.
- Donetsk is the main city in the mining basin of Donbass. Lugansk, the former Voroshilovgrad, is also an industrial city of 1.5 million inhabitants.
- Russian-backed separatists have controlled Donetsk and Luhansk enclaves since 2014 following Moscow's annexation of Crimea.
- Since then, over 14,000 people have been killed in fighting between Ukraine's army and the Russia-supported separatists.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin's recognition of the separatist republics effectively buries a fragile 2015 peace plan for the conflict and opens the door for direct Russian military involvement.
- The boundary between separatist-held areas and Ukrainian forces is called the 'Line of Contact'.
- Each of the two republics is seeking full autonomy from the central government and has their self-proclaimed presidents.
- Donbass is also at the heart of a cultural battle between Kyiv and Moscow, which says that the region, a large part of eastern Ukraine, region, is Russian speaking and needs to be protected from Ukrainian nationalism.
- The presence of Russian speakers came about as many Russian workers were sent there after World War II during the Soviet era.
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