DONBAS WAR

 DONBAS WAR

The Donbas War was a phase of the Russia-Ukraine war which began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by a Russian citizen, Igor Girkin, seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast.

By early summer in 2014, pro-Russian forces had overrun a sizable swathe of territory. In July Malaysia Airlines MH17 was shot down over rebel-controlled territory by a Russian supplied surface-to-air missile. Nearly 300 passengers and crew were killed.

A cease fire followed in February 2015 that slowed but did not stop the bloodshed leaving the Donbas in a state of frozen conflict for the next 7 years.