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73-617: The Russian Orthodox Army was one of the number of pro-Russian separatist militia units in the Donbas region described as "pro- Tsarist ", "extremist" Eastern Orthodox Christian . Starting with the onset of insurgency in Ukraine in early 2014, many central figures in Donetsk were referred to be directly or indirectly related to Russian National Unity (RNU), most notably Pavel Gubarev , a prominent spokesman with held multiple titles (leader of

146-442: A native Russian keyboard layout ( JCUKEN ). In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout , such as for English QWERTY keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic. There are a number of distinct and competing standards for the romanization of Russian Cyrillic , with none of them having received much popularity, and, in reality, transliteration

219-459: A " Soviet identity ". Roman Horbyk of Södertörn University wrote that in the 20th century, "[a]s peasants from all surrounding regions were flooding its then busy mines and plants on the border of ethnically Ukrainian and Russian territories", "incomplete and archaic institutions" prevented Donbas residents from "acquiring a notably strong modern urban – and also national – new identity". Romanization of Russian The romanization of

292-684: A federative South-Eastern state with its capital in Kharkiv . Donetsk Mayor Oleksandr Lukyanchenko , however, stated that no one wanted autonomy, but rather sought to stop the Orange Revolution demonstrations going on at the time in Kyiv and negotiate a compromise. After the Orange Revolution's victory, some of the organisers of the congress were charged with "encroachment upon the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine", but no convictions were made. In other parts of Ukraine during

365-552: A new, full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, which Russian president Vladimir Putin said was intended to "protect" the people of the Donbas from the "abuse" and "genocide" of the Ukrainian government. However, Putin's claims have been refuted. The DPR and LPR joined Russia's operation; the separatists stated that an operation to capture the entirety of Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast had begun. On 18 April 2022,

438-665: A short time with the help of its German and Austro-Hungarian allies. During the 1917–22 Russian Civil War , Nestor Makhno , who commanded the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine , was the most popular leader in the Donbas. Along with other territories inhabited by Ukrainians, the Donbas was incorporated into the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War. Cossacks in

511-438: A significant presence in the Donbas, particularly in the district of Mariupol , where they constituted 36.7% of the population. Despite this, Russians constituted the majority of the industrial workforce. Ukrainians dominated rural areas, but cities were often inhabited solely by Russians who had come seeking work in the region's heavy industries. Those Ukrainians who did move to the cities for work were quickly assimilated into

584-553: Is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine . The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War . The word Donbas is a portmanteau formed from " Donets Basin ", an abbreviation of " Donets Coal Basin " ( Ukrainian : Донецький вугільний басейн , romanized :  Donetskyi vuhilnyi basein ; Russian : Донецкий угольный бассейн , romanized :  Donetskiy ugolnyy basseyn ). The name of

657-420: Is home to a significantly higher number of cities and villages that were named after Communist figures compared to the rest of Ukraine. Despite this portrayal, surveys taken across that decade and during the 1990s showed strong support for remaining within Ukraine and insignificant support for separatism. From the beginning of March 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in

730-597: Is often carried out without any consistent standards. Scientific transliteration, also known as the International Scholarly System , is a system that has been used in linguistics since the 19th century. It is based on the Czech alphabet and formed the basis of the GOST and ISO systems. OST 8483 was the first Soviet standard on romanization of Russian, introduced on 16 October 1935. Developed by

803-706: Is the main system of the Oxford University Press, and a variation was used by the British Library to catalogue publications acquired up to 1975. The Library of Congress system (ALA-LC) is used for newer acquisitions. The BGN/PCGN system is relatively intuitive for Anglophones to read and pronounce. In many publications, a simplified form of the system is used to render English versions of Russian names, typically converting ë to yo , simplifying -iy and -yy endings to -y , and omitting apostrophes for ъ and ь . It can be rendered using only

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876-459: The Commonwealth of Independent States . Close to 90% of voters voted in favour of these propositions. None of them were adopted since the vote was nationwide. Ukraine remained a unitary state , Ukrainian was retained as the sole official language, and the Donbas gained no autonomy. Nevertheless, the Donbas strikers gained many economic concessions from Kyiv, allowing for an alleviation of

949-720: The Defence Ministry of Ukraine, the ROA was also in conflict with another pro-Russian militia, the Vostok Battalion , which accused the ROA of looting and avoiding combat. In September 2014, the ROA changed its format and joined the new Oplot Fifth Separate Infantry Brigade. Donbas The Donbas ( UK : / d ɒ n ˈ b ɑː s / , US : / ˈ d ɒ n b ɑː s , d ʌ n ˈ b æ s / ; Ukrainian : Донбас [donˈbɑs] ; ) or Donbass ( Russian : Донбасс [dɐnˈbas] )

1022-568: The Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script ), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing rapidly using

1095-409: The Russo-Ukrainian War . The conflict was thus, in the words of historian Hiroaki Kuromiya, "secretly engineered and cleverly camouflaged by outsiders". There was limited support for separatism in the Donbas before the outbreak of the war, and little evidence of support for an armed uprising. Russian claims that Russian speakers in the Donbas were being persecuted or even subjected to " genocide " by

1168-631: The Soviet Union . Turnout was 76.7% in Donetsk Oblast and 80.7% in Luhansk Oblast. In October 1991, a congress of South-Eastern deputies from all levels of government took place in Donetsk, where delegates demanded federalisation. The region's economy deteriorated severely in the ensuing years. By 1993, industrial production had collapsed, and average wages had fallen by 80% since 1990. The Donbas fell into crisis, with many accusing

1241-511: The Ukrainian government . Amid that conflict, the self-proclaimed republics held referendums on the status of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts on 11 May 2014. In the referendums, viewed as illegal by Ukraine and undemocratic by the international community, about 90% voted for the independence of the DPR and LPR. The initial protests in the Donbas were largely native expressions of discontent with

1314-413: The battle of Donbas began, a Russian offensive in mid-2022 within the larger eastern Ukraine campaign . By September 2024, Russia had control of about 80% of the region. According to the 2001 census, ethnic Ukrainians form 58% of the population of Luhansk Oblast and 56.9% of Donetsk Oblast. Ethnic Russians form the largest minority, accounting for 39% and 38.2% of the two oblasts respectively. In

1387-528: The "Donbas clan", a group of people that controlled economic and political power in the region. Prominent members of the "clan" included Viktor Yanukovych and Rinat Akhmetov . A brief attempt at gaining autonomy by pro-Viktor Yanukovych politicians and officials was made in 2004 during the Orange Revolution . The so-called South-East Ukrainian Autonomous Republic was intended to consist out of nine South - Eastern regions of Ukraine. The project

1460-462: The 2000s, the Donbas was often perceived as having a "thug culture", as being a "Soviet cesspool", and as "backward". Writing in the Narodne slovo newspaper in 2005, commentator Viktor Tkachenko said that the Donbas was home to " fifth columns ", and that speaking Ukrainian in the region was "not safe for one's health and life". It was also portrayed as being home to pro-Russian separatism. The Donbas

1533-456: The British Library since 1975. The formal, unambiguous version of the system for bibliographic cataloguing requires some diacritics, two-letter tie characters , and prime marks. The standard is also often adapted as a "simplified" or "modified Library of Congress system" for use in text for a non-specialized audience, omitting the special characters and diacritics, simplifying endings, and modifying iotated initials. British Standard 2979:1958

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1606-522: The Donbas and its population into Ukraine. The plan would give Russian-backed political entities partial control of the electorate and has been described by Zerkalo Nedeli as "implanting a cancerous cell into Ukraine's body." This was never implemented, and was subject to public protest. A 2018 survey by Sociological Group "Rating" of residents of the Ukrainian-controlled parts of the Donbas found that 82% of respondents believed there

1679-463: The Donbas autonomous status, whilst 34% supported a ceasefire and "freezing" the conflict, 23% supported military action to recover the occupied Donbas territories, and 6% supported separating these territories from Ukraine. On 21 February 2022, Russia officially recognised the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics, effectively killing the Minsk agreements . Russia subsequently launched

1752-421: The Donbas became gripped by pro-Russian and anti-government unrest . This unrest later grew into a war between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists affiliated with the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics", who were supported by Russia as part of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War . The conflict split the Donbas into Ukrainian-held territory, constituting about two-thirds of

1825-997: The Donbas militia, governor of the Donetsk People’s Republic , its foreign affairs minister, and the founder of the New Russia Party ), who besides stating ROA was organised by RNU under his control also declared himself leader of the RNE section in Donetsk . Exactly when the RNE affiliates were created in Ukraine has not been possible to establish. Historian Marlène Laruelle states that while there are suspicions of former RNU-leader Barkashov being close to commander Verin, no reliable sources in Ukraine can verify that, and ROA's own Facebook page displayed no direct connection with RNE. The ROA reportedly had 4,000 members according to Russian journalists, while eyewitnesses estimated their membership to be at 500. Notable engagements of

1898-435: The Donbas was largely unpopulated until the second half of the 17th century, when Don Cossacks established the first permanent settlements in the region. The first town in the region was founded in 1676, called Solanoye (now Soledar ), which was built for the profitable business of exploiting newly discovered rock-salt reserves. Known for being a Cossack land, the " Wild Fields " ( Ukrainian : дике поле , dyke pole ),

1971-465: The Donbas, Russia abandoned what has been called its " hybrid war " approach, and began a conventional invasion of the region. As a result of the Russian invasion, DPR and LPR insurgents regained much of the territory they had lost during the Ukrainian government's preceding military offensive. Only this Russian intervention prevented an immediate Ukrainian resolution to the conflict. This forced

2044-781: The Donbas, as part of the aftermath of the Revolution of Dignity and the Euromaidan movement. These demonstrations, which followed the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation , and which were part of a wider group of concurrent pro-Russian protests across southern and eastern Ukraine , escalated in April 2014 into a war between the Russian-backed separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR respectively), and

2117-595: The Donbas. According to linguist George Shevelov , in the early 1920s the proportion of secondary schools teaching in the Ukrainian language was lower than the proportion of ethnic Ukrainians in the Donbas – even though the Soviet Union had ordered that all schools in the Ukrainian SSR should be Ukrainian-speaking (as part of its Ukrainization policy). Surveys of regional identities in Ukraine have shown that around 40% of Donbas residents claim to have

2190-620: The Donbas. A subject of continuing research controversies, and often denied in these two oblasts, is the extent of forced emigration and deaths during the Soviet period, which particularly affected rural Ukrainians during the Holodomor which resulted as a consequence of early Soviet industrialization policies combined with two years of drought throughout southern Ukraine and the Volga region. Nearly all Ukrainian Jews either fled or were murdered in

2263-742: The Donbas. Other large cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) include Mariupol , Luhansk , Makiivka , Horlivka , Kramatorsk , Sloviansk , Alchevsk , Sievierodonetsk , and Lysychansk . The Kurgan hypothesis places the Pontic steppes of Ukraine and southern Russia as the linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans . The Yamnaya culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans. The region has been inhabited for centuries by various nomadic tribes, such as Scythians , Alans , Huns , Bulgars , Pechenegs , Kipchaks , Turco-Mongols , Tatars and Nogais . The region now known as

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2336-694: The Holocaust in Ukraine during the German occupation in World War II . The Donbas is about 6% Muslim according to the official censuses of 1926 and 2001 . Prior to the Revolution of Dignity, the politics of the region were dominated by the pro-Russian Party of Regions , which gained about 50% of Donbas votes in the 2008 Ukrainian parliamentary election . Prominent members of that party, such as former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, were from

2409-482: The Latin Alphabet is an adoption of ISO 9:1995 . It is the official standard of both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). GOST 52535.1-2006 Identification cards. Machine readable travel documents. Part 1. Machine readable passports is an adoption of an ICAO standard for travel documents. It was used in Russian passports for a short period during 2010–2013 ( see below ). The standard

2482-685: The National Administration for Geodesy and Cartography at the USSR Council of Ministers , GOST 16876-71 has been in service since 1973. Replaced by GOST 7.79-2000. This standard is an equivalent of GOST 16876-71 and was adopted as an official standard of the COMECON . GOST 7.79-2000 System of Standards on Information, Librarianship, and Publishing–Rules for Transliteration of the Cyrillic Characters Using

2555-586: The ROA include the June 2014 skirmishes in Mariupol and Amvrosiivka Raion . The headquarters of the ROA is located in an occupied Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) building in Donetsk city. Members had no special training apart from the usual conscription service in the army and swore allegiance to Igor Girkin ("Strelkov"), insurgent and Minister of Defence of the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic , as of January, 2017. Along with other separatist groups in

2628-651: The Russian-speaking worker class. In April 1918 troops loyal to the Ukrainian People's Republic took control of large parts of the region. For a while, its government bodies operated in the Donbas alongside their Russian Provisional Government equivalents. The Ukrainian State , the successor of the Ukrainian People's Republic, was able in May 1918 to bring the region under its control for

2701-473: The Ukrainian government, forcing its hand to intervene, were deemed false by Voice of America . Fighting continued through the summer of 2014, and by August 2014, the Ukrainian "Anti-Terrorist Operation" was able to vastly shrink the territory under the control of the pro-Russian forces, and came close to regaining control of the Russo-Ukrainian border. In response to the deteriorating situation in

2774-470: The Ukrainian side to seek the signing of a ceasefire agreement. Called the Minsk Protocol , this was signed on 5 September 2014. As this failed to stop the fighting, another agreement, called Minsk II was signed on 12 February 2015. This agreement called for the eventual reintegration of the Donbas republics into Ukraine, with a level of autonomy. The aim of the Russian intervention in the Donbas

2847-785: The area that is now called the Donbas was largely under the control of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetmanate and the Turkic Crimean Khanate until the mid-late 18th century, when the Russian Empire conquered the Hetmanate and annexed the Khanate. In the second half of the 17th century, settlers and fugitives from Hetman's Ukraine and Muscovy settled the lands north of the Donets river. At

2920-622: The basic letters and punctuation found on English-language keyboards: no diacritics or unusual letters are required, although the interpunct character (·) may be used to avoid ambiguity. This particular standard is part of the BGN/PCGN romanization system which was developed by the United States Board on Geographic Names and by the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names for British Official Use . The portion of

2993-677: The coal basin is a reference to the Donets Ridge ; the latter is associated with the Donets river. There are numerous definitions of the region's extent. The Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine defines the "small Donbas" as the northern part of Donetsk and the southern part of Luhansk regions of Ukraine, and the attached part of Rostov region of Russia. The historical coal mining region excluded parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts , and included areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Southern Russia . A Euroregion of

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3066-454: The coal industry led to a population boom in the region, largely driven by Russian settlers. Donetsk , the most important city in the region today, was founded in 1869 by Welsh businessman John Hughes on the site of the old Zaporozhian Cossack town of Oleksandrivka. Hughes built a steel mill and established several collieries in the region. The city was named after him as Yuzivka (Ukrainian: Юзівка ) or Yuzovka (Russian: Юзовка ). With

3139-495: The conflict broke out in 2014, the Ukrainian government registered 1.6 million internally displaced people who had fled the Donbas to other parts of Ukraine. Over 1 million were said to have fled elsewhere, mostly to Russia. At the time of the report, 2.7 million people were said to continue to live in areas under DPR and LPR control, comprising about one-third of the Donbas. Despite the Minsk agreements, low-intensity fighting along

3212-527: The congress, claiming to represent over 35 million citizens. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov and an advisor from the Russian Embassy were present in the presidium. There were calls for the appointment of Viktor Yanukovych as president of Ukraine or prime minister , for declaring of martial law in Ukraine, dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada , creation of self-defence forces, and for the creation of

3285-653: The course of the occupation. In Voroshilovgrad Oblast, now Luhansk Oblast , 45,649 were killed. In 1943 the Operation Little Saturn and Donbas strategic offensive by the Red Army resulted in the return of Donbas to Soviet control. The war had taken its toll, leaving the region both destroyed and depopulated. During the reconstruction of the Donbas after the end of the Second World War, large numbers of Russian workers arrived to repopulate

3358-570: The development of Yuzovka and similar cities, large numbers of landless peasants from peripheral governorates of the Russian Empire came looking for work. According to the Russian Imperial Census of 1897, Ukrainians (" Little Russians ", in the official imperial language) accounted for 52.4% of the population of the region, whilst ethnic Russians constituted 28.7%. Ethnic Greeks, Germans , Jews and Tatars also had

3431-482: The economic crisis in the region. Small strikes continued throughout the 1990s, though demands for autonomy faded. Some subsidies to Donbas heavy industries were eliminated, and many mines were closed by the Ukrainian government because of liberalising reforms pushed for by the World Bank . Leonid Kuchma , who had won the 1994 presidential election with support from the Donbas and other areas in eastern Ukraine,

3504-604: The end of the 18th century, many Russians , Ukrainians , Serbs and Greeks migrated to lands along the southern course of the Donets river, into an area previously inhabited by nomadic Nogais , who were nominally subject to the Crimean Khanate. Tsarist Russia named the conquered territories " New Russia " (Russian: Новороссия , Novorossiya ). As the Industrial Revolution took hold across Europe,

3577-443: The introduction of a dedicated Latin alphabet for writing the Russian language. Such an alphabet would not necessarily bind closely to the traditional Cyrillic orthography. The transition from Cyrillic to Latin has been proposed several times throughout history (especially during the Soviet era), but was never conducted on a large scale, except for informal romanizations in the computer era. The most serious possibility of adoption of

3650-410: The line of contact between Ukrainian government and Russian-controlled areas continued until 2022. Since the start of the conflict there have been 29 ceasefires, each intended to remain in force indefinitely, but none of them stopped the violence. This led the war to be referred to as a " frozen conflict ". On 11 January 2017, the Ukrainian government approved a plan to reintegrate the occupied part of

3723-405: The new Ukrainian government. Russian involvement at this stage was limited to its voicing of support for the demonstrations. The emergence of the separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk began as a small fringe group of the protesters, independent of Russian control. This unrest, however, only evolved into an armed conflict because of Russian military backing for what had been a marginal group as part of

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3796-541: The new central government in Kyiv of mismanagement and neglect. Donbas coal miners went on strike in 1993, causing a conflict that was described by historian Lewis Siegelbaum as "a struggle between the Donbas region and the rest of the country". One strike leader said that Donbas people had voted for independence because they wanted "power to be given to the localities, enterprises, cities", not because they wanted heavily centralised power moved from "Moscow to Kyiv". This strike

3869-484: The new system and the old one, citizens who wanted to retain the old version of a name's transliteration, especially one that had been in the old pre-2010 passport, could apply to the local migration office before they acquired a new passport. The standard was abandoned in 2013. In 2013, Order No. 320 of the Federal Migration Service of Russia came into force. It states that all personal names in

3942-509: The passports must be transliterated by using the ICAO system , which is published in Doc 9303 " Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3 ". The system differs from the GOST R 52535.1-2006 system in two things: ц is transliterated into ts (as in pre-2010 systems), ъ is transliterated into ie (a novelty). In a second sense, the romanization or Latinization of Russian may also indicate

4015-476: The present day, the Donbas is a predominately Russophone region . According to the 2001 census, Russian is the main language of 74.9% of residents in Donetsk Oblast and 68.8% in Luhansk Oblast. Residents of Russian origin are mainly concentrated in the larger urban centers. Russian became the main language and lingua franca in the course of industrialization, boosted by the immigration of many Russians, particularly from Kursk Oblast , to newly founded cities in

4088-603: The region were subjected to decossackisation during 1919–1921. Ukrainians in the Donbas were greatly affected by the 1932–33 Holodomor famine and the Russification policy of Joseph Stalin . As most ethnic Ukrainians were rural peasant farmers, they bore the brunt of the famine. The Donbas was greatly affected by the Second World War . In the lead-up to the war, the region was racked by poverty and food shortages. War preparations resulted in an extension of

4161-474: The region, and separatist-held territory, constituting about one-third. The region remained this way for years until Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine . On 30 September 2022, Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of Donbas together with two other Ukrainian oblasts, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia . The city of Donetsk (the fifth largest city in Ukraine) is considered the unofficial capital of

4234-455: The region, further altering the population balance. In 1926, 639,000 ethnic Russians resided in the Donbas, and Ukrainians made up 60% of the population. As a result of the Russification policy, the Ukrainian population of the Donbass then declined drastically as ethnic Russians settled in the region in large numbers. By 1959, the ethnic Russian population was 2.55 million. Russification

4307-528: The region, the ROA has been accused of "kidnapp[ing], beat[ing], and threaten[ing] Protestants , Catholics , and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church… as well as participat[ing] in anti-Semitic acts." In late November 2014, the group gained attention after abducting prominent Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest, Sergeii Kulbaka, and Roman Catholic priest, Father Pawel Witek. According to

4380-445: The same name is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast in Russia . The Donbas formed the historical border between the Zaporizhian Sich and the Don Cossack Host . It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory. In March 2014, following the Euromaidan protest movement and the resulting Revolution of Dignity , large swaths of

4453-436: The system pertaining to the Russian language was adopted by BGN in 1944 and by PCGN in 1947. In Soviet international passports , transliteration was based on French rules but without diacritics and so all names were transliterated in a French-style system . In 1997, with the introduction of new Russian passports , a diacritic-free English-oriented system was established by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs , but

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4526-447: The system was also abandoned in 2010. In 2006, GOST R 52535.1-2006 was adopted, which defines technical requirements and standards for Russian international passports and introduces its own system of transliteration. In 2010, the Federal Migration Service of Russia approved Order No. 26, stating that all personal names in the passports issued after 2010 must be transliterated using GOST R 52535.1-2006. Because of some differences between

4599-545: The use of diacritics) that faithfully represents the original and allows for reverse transliteration for Cyrillic text in any contemporary language. The UNGEGN , a Working Group of the United Nations , in 1987 recommended a romanization system for geographical names, which was based on the 1983 version of GOST 16876-71 . It may be found in some international cartographic products. American Library Association and Library of Congress (ALA-LC) romanization tables for Slavic alphabets are used in North American libraries and in

4672-407: The vast coal resources of the region, discovered in 1721, began to be exploited in the mid-late 19th century. It was at this point that the name Donbas came into use, derived from the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian: Донецький вугільний басейн ; Russian: Донецкий каменноугольный бассейн ), referring to the area along the Donets river where most of the coal reserves were found. The rise of

4745-486: The working day for factory labourers, whilst those who deviated from the heightened standards were arrested. Nazi Germany 's leader Adolf Hitler viewed the resources of the Donbas as critical to Operation Barbarossa . As such, the Donbas suffered under Nazi occupation during 1941 and 1942. Thousands of industrial labourers were deported to Nazi Germany for use in factories. In what was then called Stalino Oblast , now Donetsk Oblast , 279,000 civilians were killed over

4818-464: Was followed by a 1994 consultative referendum on various constitutional questions in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, held concurrently with the first parliamentary elections in independent Ukraine. These questions included whether Russian should be declared an official language of Ukraine, whether Russian should be the language of administration in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, whether Ukraine should federalise, and whether Ukraine should have closer ties with

4891-511: Was further advanced by the 1958–59 Soviet educational reforms, which led to the near elimination of all Ukrainian-language schooling in the Donbas. By the time of the Soviet Census of 1989 , 45% of the population of the Donbas reported their ethnicity as Russian. In 1990, the Interfront of the Donbass was founded as a movement against Ukrainian independence. In the 1991 referendum on Ukrainian independence, 83.9% of voters in Donetsk Oblast and 83.6% in Luhansk Oblast supported independence from

4964-430: Was initiated on 26 November 2004 by the Luhansk Oblast Council, and was discontinued the next month by the Donetsk Oblast Council. On 28 November 2004, in Sievierodonetsk , the so-called First All-Ukraine Congress of People's Deputies And Local-Council's Deputies took place, organised by the supporters of Viktor Yanukovych. A total of 3,576 delegates from 16 oblasts of Ukraine, Crimea and Sevastopol took part in

5037-416: Was no discrimination against Russian-speaking people in Ukraine. Only 11% saw some evidence of discrimination. The same survey also found that 71% of respondents did not support Russia's military intervention to "protect" the Russian-speaking population, with only 9% offering support for that action. Another survey by Rating, conducted in 2019, found that only 23% of those Ukrainians polled supported granting

5110-408: Was re-elected as president of Ukraine in 1999 . President Kuchma gave economic aid to the Donbas, using development money to gain political support in the region. Power in the Donbas became concentrated in a regional political elite, known as oligarchs , during the early 2000s. Privatisation of state industries led to rampant corruption. Regional historian Hiroaki Kuromiya described this elite as

5183-458: Was substituted in 2013 by GOST R ISO/ IEC 7501-1-2013, which does not contain romanization, but directly refers to the ICAO romanization ( see below ). Names on street and road signs in the Soviet Union were romanized according to GOST 10807-78 (tables 17, 18), which was amended by newer Russian GOST R 52290-2004 (tables Г.4, Г.5), the romanizations in both the standards are practically identical. ISO/R 9, established in 1954 and updated in 1968,

5256-570: Was the adoption of the scientific transliteration by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). It covers Russian and seven other Slavic languages. ISO 9:1995 is the current transliteration standard from ISO. It is based on its predecessor ISO/R 9:1968, which it deprecates; for Russian, the two are the same except in the treatment of five modern letters. ISO 9:1995 is the first language-independent, univocal system of one character for one character equivalents (by

5329-501: Was to establish pro-Russian governments that, upon reincorporation into Ukraine, would facilitate Russian interference in Ukrainian politics. The Minsk agreements were thus highly favourable to the Russian side, as their implementation would accomplish these goals. The conflict led to a vast exodus from the Donbas: half the region's population were forced to flee their homes. A UN OHCHR report released on 3 March 2016 stated that, since

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