UKRAINE Ukraine is located in Eastern Europe, sharing borders with Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. It has an area of 603,628 km2 (233,062 sq mi) and population of over 44,000,000. Since the end of World War Two, Ukraine had been a peaceful land, first as one of the republics of USSR and after the collapse of it as independent democratic country, up until 2014 THE WAR Common Article 2 to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 states that: In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peacetime, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them. The Convention shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance.
March Crimea Days after Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych fled from Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, in late February 2014, armed men began to take control of the Crimean Peninsula. Checkpoints were established by men with green military-grade uniforms without insignia and equipment in the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Simferopol, and the port-city of Sevastopol, home to a Russian naval base, per international treaty between Ukraine and Russia under the Kharkiv Pact of 2010. The local population and the media referred to these men as little green men. After the occupation of the Crimean parliament by these unmarked troops, who Russian president Vladimir Putin later admitted were Russian armed forces, despite initially telling the press that no Russian military is present in Crimea outside of the Russian bases, the self-proclaimed Crimean leadership announced it would hold a referendum on secession from Ukraine on March 16, 2014. After the referendum, which was condemned as illegitimate by the international community, Russia annexed Crimea. Although the annexation of Crimea went without major resistance and an open armed conflict, the Geneva Conventions apply to the situation in Crimea from the moment Russian armed forces entered Ukrainian territory without Ukraine s consent
A year later in the Russian-made documentary called Crimea. The Way Home, Vladimir Putin said he ordered the Defense Ministry to deploy the special forces of the GRU [Main Intelligence Department of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation], together with marine forces and paratroopers to Crimea. According to Putin, he also deployed K-300P Bastion-P coastal defense missiles to demonstrate Russia s willingness to protect the peninsula from military attack. When Vladimir Putin was asked whether he was ready to bring nuclear weapons into play, he replied: We were ready to do it. 1
End of February through March Pro-Russian and anti-euromaidan (Euromaidan is the movement in Ukraine in support of democracy and European integration) gatherings were occurring across Eastern and Southern Ukraine in Odessa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, while the most intense situation started evolving in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Pro-Russian forces were storming government administration buildings and attacking supporters of the Maidan and the Ukrainian authorities. Donetsk Luhanks
Regions, where pro-russian unrest occurred in March. Brown: regions, where taking over the government buildings failed. Red: regions, where the government buildings were eventually taken over by the Russia-backed militants. Dark brown: territory annexed by Russia.
The unrest in Donetsk was lead by Pavel Gubarev. 2 Gubarev is a former member of a Russian neo-nazi party Russian National Unity, known for its violent persecutions of jews, racial minorities and the LGBT community. 3
In Luhansk, the disturbances were lead by Alexander Kharitonov, the leader of the radical militaristic organization Luganskaya Gvardiya (Luhansk Guard). 4 Previously, this organization took part in the so-called Russian March in Luhansk on February 9, 2014. The Russian March is a mass demonstration of Russian nationalists, who promote re-establishing of Imperial Russia and the expansion of Russia to the territory of the Soviet Union, with the doctrine of bringing back extreme conservative and Russian Orthodox values. These demonstrators also stand against western values of tolerance and democracy. 5, 6
The participants of the Russian March in Luhansk hold the flags of the Russian Empire, Soviet Ukraine and the emblem of the Luhansk Guard. 7
March 13, 2014. Russian Armed Forces announced a new set of sudden military exercises on the border regions of Rostov, Belgorod and Kursk. NATO took satellite images in Russian troops and weapons near the Ukrainian border. 8
April-May 2014 April 7, 2014. As tensions across Eastern Ukraine kept escalating, pro-russian protesters declared the Donetsk People s Republic (DPR) after having stormed and taken control over the government buildings. 9
April 12, 2014. A group of masked militants, which was formed in Crimea and led by former officer of Russian security services Igor Girkin (as he himself stated in his interview to A. Prokhanov on November 20, 2014), captured the executive committee building, the police department, and the Security Service of Ukraine offices in Slovyansk, a city in the 10, 11 northern part of the Donetsk Oblast.
Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, also known as Igor Ivanovich Strelkov, who commanded the Russia-backed militant forced in the Donbass, is a Russian national and a former officer of the FSB (Russia s Federal Security Service). Girkin s political views are close to Russian nationalism, Monarchism and the White Guard movement, strongly influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church. As he himself has admitted in his memoirs, he fought in the Bosnian and Chechen wars. Several sources and former Bosnian army officers accuse him of being involved in Višegrad massacres in which thousands of civilians were killed 12, 13 in 1992.
Throughout April and May, attempts were made by the separatists to attack other places in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, such as Amrosievka, Semenivka, Kramatorsk, Andrivka, Oktyabrski, Stakhanov, Konstantinivka and Mariupol. These attacks resulted in the deaths of the Ukrainian military and security personnel and civilians.
April 27, 2014. The Russia-backed militants in Luhansk proclaimed the Luhansk People s Republic (LPR). 14 Russia-backed militant leader Valeriy Bolotov speaking in Luhansk, May 1, 2014. 15
On May 1, 2014 a mass demonstration in support of Putin, the DPR and the LPR was held in Moscow, Russia. 16 People were carrying portraits of Stalin, Putin and Lenin, as well as the flags of the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. The rally was live broadcasted on the Russian official state-owned channels. 17
May 11, 2014. Referenda on the status of the territories controlled by the so-called LPR and DPR took place on this date within these regions. The results of these referenda were not recognized by any government, including the Russian one. 18 According to the officials of the LPR, the results were the following: Do you support the declaration of state independence of the Luhansk People s Republic? Yes 96.2% 19 No 3.8% The voter turnout as reported by LPR was 75% 20, while Ukrainian authorities stated that only 24% 21 showed up for the referendum. According to the officials of the DPR the results were the following: Do you support the Act of State Self-rule of the Donetsk People s Republic? Yes 89.07% 22 No 10.19% Invalid ballots 0.74% The voter turnout as reported by DPR was 74.87% 23, while Ukrainian authorities stated that only 32% 24 showed up for the referendum.
Press conference of the referendum organizers in Donetsk, the day before the referendum took place. 25 Supporters of the referendum on the streets of Donetsk.
A polling station in Donetsk. A polling station outside. Peaceful residents of the Donbass region voting Another polling station outside. People vote, while armed men supervise the process.
The numbers of the separatists increases, and attacks on the Ukrainian army intensify. Casualties keep rising from both sides and civilians deaths increase. May 27, 2014. Near the town of Novoaidar, Russia-backed militants opened fire at a vehicle and a passenger bus, killing civilians. 26
June - July Throughout all of June, the separatists kept attacking the border between Russia and Luhansk and Donetsk regions in order to seize control over it. Taking control over the border meant free and unrestricted flow of transportation, weapons and supplies, as well as access for volunteers and militant forces from Russia willing to support and fight on behalf of the DPR and the LPR. In June alone Ukraine lost control over 150-200 km of border with Russia. 27
Border checkpoint in Marinovka, Donetsk region, was attacked by the Russia-backed militants on June 5, 2014. 28
As the war continued, the evidence of the involvement of the Russian state, and its supply of weaponry to the combatants kept piling up. On June 6, 2014 after an attack by the Russiabacked combatants was successfully rebuffed near the checkpoint of Marinovka, Donetsk region, a box for 9M39 (man-portable air defence system Igla ) was discovered. The documents inside the box indicate that this system was kept at the military base of the Russian Air Forces #33859 in the town of Yeysk, Krasnodarsky kray since 2001. The last entry in the documents shows, that on April 12, 2014 this weapon was still kept in the storehouse of the above-mentioned base. 29
Stand offs between the pro-russian separatists and the Ukrainian army continued in many other places across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Luhansk, June 2, 2014.
Pro-Russian fighters in Luhansk.
The town of Artemivsk on June 27, 2014 after an attack by the pro-russian forces. 30 Slovyansk on June 29, 2014. Reuters
Nadiya Savchenko Nadiya Savchenko was born on May 11, 1981 in Kyiv. Since her childhood she was determined to become a pilot and joined the Ukrainian army. From 2004 to 2008 she served in Iraq as the only female among the Ukrainian peacekeeping troops. When the war in Eastern Ukraine broke out, Nadiya voluntarily joined the Aidar battalion, which is a volunteer military detachment of Ukraine s Ministry of Defense. On June 18, 2014 she was captured by the Russia-backed combatants belonging to the Zarya battalion. Later she was smuggled into Russia and was accused of killing Russian journalists. After over 8 months of investigation, the prosecutors have been unable to present any solid evidence of her involvement in the deaths of the journalists. 31
On December 13, 2014 after months of detention in poor conditions of the jail, and no progress in the investigation and trial, Nadiya went on hunger strike. Already in prison, Savchenko was elected member of Parliament in Ukraine in October 2014, and was included in Ukraine s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which gives her political immunity. Thus, the continuation of her custody violates the international law. Although many European and North American leaders and politicians condemned her detention and demanded her immediate release, the Russian government did not react. On April 29, 2015 Nadiya s lawyer Ilya Novikov, told BBC that her hunger strike will be selective she ll take food prior to court hearings. This happened after she was taken to hospital due to deteriorating health. He also said, that she would like to return to the detention center as she is not given time in the open air, is 32, 33 kept in a dark and gloomy special unit of the hospital and allowed to go to the toilet in handcuffs only. Nadiya Savchenko in court in Moscow on February 11, 2015 after almost two months of hunger strike. 34
July 5, 2014. On July 5, after the Ukrainian army encircled the city of Slovyansk, it was finally recaptured from the Russia-backed militants. In fact, starting from June up to August the Ukrainian army was able to advance recapture about ¾ of the territories previously occupied by the combatants. 35 Military vehicles of the Russia-backed militants, destroyed by the Ukrainian army close to Slovyansk. Military vehicles of the Russia-backed militants, destroyed by the Ukrainian army close to Slovyansk.
The Ukrainian flag is hoisted at the city hall of Slovyansk on July 7, 2014. The town of Semyonivka on July 7, 2014 after being liberated by the Ukrainian army.