Kindergarten in Lugansk under bombardment▶ Click here for a larger view
A shell fell on the wall of a kindergarten in Lugansk, a pro-Russian rebel-held area in eastern Ukraine on the 17th (local time). In the photo of the site, children’s balls and spilled bricks were scattered under the open wall.
Fortunately, there were no casualties.
The Ukrainian government and rebels are wrestling with each other over who attacked first.
The US CNN broadcast on the 17th (local time) analyzed that the international community’s interest in the Ukraine crisis is focused on the ‘Donbass region’ with this incident as an opportunity.
As soon as the news of the bombardment was spread through the Russian media, the stock price plummeted and oil and gold prices soared momentarily.
Ukrainian soldiers interviewing the press▶ Click here for a larger view
The kindergarten where the shells fell is located in Stanicha, Lugansk, in the Donbass region. Donbas is the name for the Lugansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine.
Geographically, it borders Russia on the eastern border of Ukraine.
This area has been the battleground of the ‘Donbass Civil War’, which has been fought between the Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian rebels since 2014.
The civil war in Donbas began when Russian residents demanded independence and secession from Ukraine’s Crimea and eastern Donbas regions.
Just before this civil war broke out in Ukraine, the conflict between the pro-Russian side and the pro-Western power was very intense. In 2013, pro-Western forces staged massive anti-government protests.
At that time, the pro-Russian government began bloody and forcible suppression of the protests, but on the contrary, it was impeached without surviving stronger backlash.
After the impeachment, a pro-Western transitional government was established.
However, at this time, Lugansk and Donetsk provinces in eastern Ukraine, which have a high proportion of pro-Russian tendencies, protested. The residents of this region claimed independence and declared the establishment of the self-proclaimed ‘Lugansk People’s Republic’ (LPR) and ‘Donetsk People’s Republic’ (DPR) through their own referendum.
These ‘states’ have not received any recognition from the international community to this day. The Donbas Civil War is a battle between the Ukrainian government forces, who view them as rebels, and those who seek independence as an official state.
JCCC investigators investigating shelling in the Lugansk region▶ Click here for a larger view
The problem is that these rebels are receiving Russian military and military support.
Although Russia does not officially acknowledge the existence of the Lugansk-Donetsk republics, it has some relations with its leaders. Hundreds of thousands of local residents hold Russian passports.
It is once morest this background that Donbas is selected as the top candidate for Russia’s ‘self-made play’ to make it appear that the Ukrainian army is attacking civilians to justify the invasion.
The British daily The Guardian analyzed that Russia effectively dominates these countries. In particular, although Russia strongly denies it, the observation that it provides troops and weapons to the rebels is orthodox.
Russian Special Forces members were also seen working with rebels in green uniforms without any unit marks. The international community called them ‘Little Green Man’.
The Guardian explained that Russia seemed to have decided that it would be more effective to leave these rebel regions as a pro-Russian force in Ukraine and influence Ukraine’s policy decisions rather than annex the entire region.
There was no lack of efforts by the international community to stop the war. In September 2014, Ukraine, Russia, LPR and DPR signed an armistice agreement in Minsk, the capital of Belarus. This is the so-called Minsk Agreement. However, the agreement was not kept and clashes continued.
Finally, in 2015, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian President Petro Poroshenko, and LPR and DPR representatives met once more in Minsk with the mediation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) arbitration in 2015. After an agreement, the ‘Second Minsk Agreement’ was signed.
A kid imitating a soldier in Lugansk▶ Click here for a larger view
According to the agreement, the large-scale charging stopped when the OSCE monitored the front lines and reported violations of the Armistice Agreement. However, sporadic engagements might not be stopped. The war killed 14,000 people and forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes and seek refuge.
It is a place where political upheaval is constant, but residents are more concerned regarding how to make a living than which country’s government governs.
The Washington Post reported on the same day that it conducted a survey of 4,25 people in Donbas from the 14th to the 17th of last month.
According to the report, when asked if they would agree with the saying, “whether in Ukraine or Russia, all you need to do is increase your salary and get a good pension,” a majority of respondents answered ‘yes’.
There was no significant difference in opinion between the Ukrainian government’s jurisdiction in Donbas and the rebel-occupied areas.
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