The Vladimir Putin-led country has turned its focus to Donbas, which contains Donetsk and Luhansk. Annexing this region would be significant to Moscow not only from a strategic perspective but also from an economic and nationalist viewpoint
Russian military vehicles move on a highway in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces near Mariupol, Ukraine. AP
After multiple warnings, the moment finally arrived on Monday. According to Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia began its full-scale ground offensive to take control of Ukraine’s east, with explosions reported all along the front lines and one local official describing the situation as “hell” amid “constant fighting”.
“We can now say that Russian forces have started the battle of the Donbas, for which they have long prepared,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.
News agency Associated Press reported that the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Kramatorsk had come under deadly attack. Russia also said it struck areas around Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro west of the Donbas with missiles. Multiple explosions were heard early Wednesday in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. A hospital was reported shelled earlier in the nearby town of Bashtanka.
In Mariupol, the war-ravaged port city in Donbas, the Russian military was dropping heavy bombs to flatten what was left of a steel plant and also hit a hospital where hundreds had taken refuge.
As the war enters a new phase, on Day 56, here’s all we know about Donbas and why Vladimir Putin wants it so badly.
Where’s Donbas?
The Donbas region is a predominantly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in Ukraine’s east, which borders Russia.
Almost twice the size of Belgium, it is an industrial powerhouse filled with valuable coal and metal deposits and processing centers, as well as strategically important ports on the Sea of Azov, which sits between Russia, Crimea and Ukraine.
Markian Dobczansky, an associate at Harvard University’s Ukrainian Research Institute, told CNN, “The Soviet Union intensively developed the Donbas as an industrial centre. It was a place that set the tempo of Soviet industrialisation.”
This region has been in conflict with Russia since 2014. Since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow-backed separatists have battled Ukrainian forces in the Donbas. The conflict has claimed the lives of over 14,000 people, estimates the United Nations.
The Luhansk and Donetsk republics, which Vladimir Putin officially recognised as independent regions on 22 February, also makes up a large portion of the Donbas region.
When he launched his invasion against Ukraine, Putin had said it was partly intended to “protect” the people of the Donbas from the “abuse” and “genocide” of the Ukrainian government.
Why does Putin want Donbas?
There are multiple reasons why Russia has redirected its attention to the Donbas region.
A win in the Donbas region would not only be militarily significant, but also be beneficial from an economic viewpoint.
As stated earlier, Donbas is the industrial heart of Ukraine. If Russia could annex Donbas, it would have access to large coal reserves as well as the coal mining industry
With its coal mining industry and large coal reserves that Russia could potentially access if it annexed the entire region.
Secondly, winning the Donbas region would allow Russia to create a “land bridge” to Crimea, which it annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and which is a vital military and trading hub for Moscow on the Black Sea.
This is also another reason that the port city of Mariupol, which is directly in the path of the possible land bridge, has been the focus of Russian attacks, reducing it to rubble.
Another reason that Russia has turned its focus on Donbas could be owing to identity politics. Several people within the region still identify themselves as being Russian.
In fact, this was the primary justification that Putin used to begin his ‘special military operation’ and what he continues to use for his actions. Russian state media has focused on Donbas residents fleeing in recent weeks, repeatedly accusing Ukraine’s military of war crimes in the region, allegations denied by Ukraine.
The last reason why Putin is insistent on the Donbas region is that Russia needs a ‘win’. Since the invasion began on 24 February, the offensive has been quickly stymied by staunch resistance.
The Russian military has incurred heavy personnel and equipment losses, boosting the morale of the Ukrainian forces.
This, in turn, has cost Russia deeply not only on a physical level, but also at a psychological level.
Despite causing large-scale destruction, Moscow has achieved relatively little — and it has failed to bring about the swift fall of the capital Kyiv and removal of Zelenskyy’s pro-Western government.
This has led to the Kremlin, according to analysts, to turn its attention to strategic areas. Russia is hoping that the sustained and deadly attacks on Donbas would shake the morale of the Ukrainians and help Russia to gain ground.
Putin probably hopes that routing Ukrainian forces in the east will allow him to force Kyiv to accept key Kremlin conditions.
What happens to Ukraine if Donbas falls?
Royal United Services Institute’s Cranny-Evans told CNBC.com there could be a difficult price to pay if Ukraine loses the battle for Donbas and Russia annexes the region.
“[You could say] that Ukraine has won because its country still exists but if it does lose Donbass entirely, is that really a victory? Does it mean that peace will last forever? Or will Ukraine have to fight another war in 10 years time? There is a lot of stake for the Ukrainians,” Cranny-Evans said.
As of now, everyone is just watching as the war unfolds and Russia-Ukraine continue to battle it out.
With inputs from agencies
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