Where is Dombass located? The eastern region of Ukraine is of great importance to Russia not only because of an ethnic issue
On the night of February 23rd Vladimir Putin gave the ok to the invasion ofUkraine, described as a “special military operation”. The Russian president, whom many already consider worthy Stalin’s heir and other European dictators, defined the objectives of this war: “demilitarize but not occupy” and “de-Nazify” the country. But what are the real reasons for the crisis Ukraine and why the Dombass has it become so central to Russia’s foreign policy?
Where is Dombass and why is it so important to Putin
The Donbass is an eastern region ofUkraine enclosing the pelvis of the Until thentributary river of the Don which also crosses the Russia. The main city of the Donbass And Donetsk with over 1 million inhabitants. The Donbass is divided into three “area“(Russian equivalent of the regions). Two of these, that of Donetsk e Luhanskunilaterally declared themselves republics independent of theUkraine in 2014.
The Dombass officially detached from Russia with the collapse of theSoviet Union in 1991. Over 80% of the population is Russian-speaking and this is one of the reasons that led to the birth of the separatist republics of Donetsk e Luhansk. The city of Mariupolwith a Cossack and even Italian past, is instead strongly linked to the Ukrainian tradition.
The Dombass is of interest to Putin not only for the ethnic question but also because it overlooks the sea of Azov and is located less than 300 km from Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, and just over 70 km from the large industrial city of Rostov. Not only, Putin has badly digested the collapse ofUSSR and dreams of reconstituting an empire that extends from the East to Europe. He has no case he described the invasion ofUkrainewhich according to a historical revision criticized in the West is “a Russian invention”, as a “necessary measure of territorial defense”.
For this reason it is feared that Putin wants to go further by occupying not only the Dombass but the whole country and perhaps also invading other neighboring countries such as Poland and the Baltic republics. The first was in fact part of theUSSR while Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania as well as the Finland in the past they were Russian territory. The invasion of these nations by the Russia would force the Then to intervene militarily, opening a scenario of total conflict from third World warwhich some prophets had already foretold in the distant past.
Read also:
Ukraine, risk of World War III? “Possible Italy-NATO involvement”
Are we risking World War III? “US Army ready to go to Europe”
Italian soldiers in Ukraine: soldiers deployed and departments involved