The Russian-Ukrainian crisis continues to this day, Russia and Ukraine have finally reached the most reluctant step, and Putin has finally taken a "big move". On the 24th local time, Putin made a speech announcing that he had decided to launch a special military operation in the Donbass region. At the same time, explosions were heard in many parts of Ukraine, and the Ukrainian side alleged that Russia had launched a "full-scale invasion.".
The Donbass region, as the center of the whirlpool, has once again made headlines in the world's major mainstream media after a gap of 7 years, and has become the focus of people's current discussion. For Ukraine, the loss of the Donbass means a humiliation of national sovereignty and the loss of its territory, while for Russia, even if it triggers a terrible wave, it must be pocketed at all costs. So what does the Donbass region, which now covers an area of only 17,200 square kilometers, mean for Russia?
In Ukraine and Russian, the Donbass is the abbreviation of the "Donetsk Coal Basin", in a narrow sense (only from the Ukrainian point of view), the Donbass region is located in its four domestic regions, including Donetsk, Voroshilovgrad, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk, etc.; in a broad sense, the geographical concept of the Donbass region also includes parts of the Rostov Oblast and Voronezh Oblast in Russia.
Donetsk Oblast covers an area of 26,600 square kilometers, with 56.9% Ukrainian and 38.2% Russian, but linguistically, the rate of Russian use is as high as 74.9%, which is also the case in Luhansk. The Luhansk Oblast covers an area of 26,600 square kilometers, and the population speaks Ukrainian by 30% and Russian by 68.8%. From this point of view of the use of language, we can see the influence and immersion of Russian culture on the local area. From the time of Tsarist Russia to the Soviet period and even today, when the Donbass region is mentioned in Russia and Ukraine or in europe, a word comes to mind, that is, coal!
The Donetsk Coal Basin is a coalfield with an east-west length of 620 kilometers, a width of 70 to 170 kilometers from north to south, and an area of about 60,000 square kilometers, with reserves of 96.2 billion tons at a depth of 1,800 meters and reserves of 73.2 billion tons at a depth of 1,200 meters, and rich in various types of high-quality coal. As a result, the Donbass region became the most important coal metallurgical industrial base in the Tsarist era.
In the Soviet era, the coal reserves of the Donbass region accounted for 11% of the union, and Donetsk was also known as the "coal city". After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Donbass region immediately became an industrial center in Ukraine, providing a steady stream of high-quality steel and coal for the development and construction of its domestic economic life, which gave birth to the slogan "Donbass is the heart of Ukraine".
On the basis of abundant coal resources, the Donbass region has successively developed steel, chemical, machinery and other industries, and since the Tsarist era, it has gradually formed an industrial zone dominated by energy and heavy chemical industries. After the establishment of the Soviet Union, the Donbass region ushered in rapid development, and the typical products of this period were famous manufacturers such as Azov Steel Mill, Irischa Steel Plant, Luhansk Locomotive Factory, etc., especially the latter, which was the largest and highest output diesel locomotive manufacturing plant in the Soviet Era, which shows the importance of the Donbass Region to the economic development of the Soviet Union.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Donbass region suffered heavy setbacks, mainly covering the industrial and defense sectors, but these could not affect its industrialization process, because of the huge domestic demand in Ukraine. Russian media reported in 2013 that the Donbass region, which covers only 5% of the territory of Ukraine, contributes 16% of Ukraine's GDP, while in terms of industrial product sales, the Donbass region accounts for 27.3%, which can be described as the leader.
For Russia, recognizing or acquiring the Donbass region would give it more initiative in confrontations with the West and Ukraine. In terms of geographical environment and strategic position, in addition to the border with Russia's Rostov Oblast in the east, the Donbas region is close to the Sea of Azov in the south, which is an extremely important passage hub connecting Russia and Ukraine. In addition, the Donbass region has developed transportation and complete infrastructure, so as the surrounding situation deteriorates, the Russian side will be more rapid and efficient when taking relevant countermeasures and measures, which can be described as "offensive and retreatable", completely changing many of the previous passive and restrictive constraints.
Politically, the people living in the Donbass region have a greater sense of belonging and identity with neighboring Russia, and have no good feelings for the Government of Kiev, as can be seen from the presidential elections before the outbreak of the Crisis in Ukraine. For its part, Russia is not to sit idly by and cede ownership of the Donbass region to "Ukrainian nationalists." It is better to take the initiative and firmly control it in your own hands, and the intuitive benefit of such a move is to stabilize the political stability in Russia, and vice versa.
The last point is to start from the economy, a large number of manufacturers and enterprises distributed in the Donbas region, high-quality energy, and related industrial products can enter the Russian domestic market to help its economic development and related construction, which can be described as an urgent need to solve the urgent need and benefit endlessly.
It is worth mentioning that after the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, in addition to the strong meaning of "independence from Ukraine" in the two regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, there is no shortage of Kharkiv Oblasts. But the situation now is that the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have achieved their desired goals, and the Kharkiv oblast is back in the hands of the Ukrainian government.
The reason behind this is that kiev has not taken decisive measures against the situation on the ground, and behind this is the Ukrainian government's deep fear that the Russian side will use this as an excuse to intervene, which will make the region become a Crimean peninsula again. Kharkiv Oblast, on the other hand, has sent troops to deal with the situation since the situation has become complicated, and has calmed down, without any previous concerns. This shows how much weight the Donbass region carries in Russia's heart!
Back seven years ago, on February 12, 2015, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France finally reached the Minsk Agreement in Belarus on easing the situation in Uzbekistan, and since then, Russia still has the last glimmer of hope for the West and the Ukrainian government, believing that it can put an end to the "NATO eastward expansion" and the two sides can move towards the common goal. But seven years later, on February 21, 2022, with the release of Russian President Vladimir Putin's speech, it marked a complete escalation of the situation in Eastern Ukraine. The culprit of all this is the US-led NATO organization and the Ukrainian government as a pawn.
As for the "Minsk Agreement", according to Putin, it is "long dead", and there is another layer of meaning behind this sentence, that is, the Russian government will not have any expectations for the West and the Ukrainian government, so it has become the only choice for the Russian government at present to attack the Donbass region and crush Ukraine.