From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups (as well as pro-government demonstrations) took place in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Odesa. The unrest, which was supported by the Russian military and intelligence services, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
During its first phase in February–March 2014, the Ukrainian territory of Crimea was invaded and subsequently annexed by Russia following an internationally unrecognized referendum, with the United Nations General Assembly voting in favor of Ukraine's territorial integrity. Concurrently, protests by anti-Maidan and pro-Russian groups took place across other parts of eastern and southern Ukraine. Local separatists, some directed and financed by the Russian security services, took advantage of the situation and occupied government buildings in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv oblasts in early March 2014. The Ukrainian government was able to quickly quell this unrest and removed the separatists by 10 March.
Eventually, Kharkiv, Odesa, and most parts of Donbas, including Mariupol, remained under Ukrainian government control. The Russia-controlled DPR and LPR were formed and took control of Donetsk and Luhansk. In the second phase from April 2014, armed Russian-backed groups seized government buildings across Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, together known as the Donbas, and launched a separatist insurgency in the region. To suppress this insurgency, the Ukrainian government began what it called an "Anti-Terrorist Operation" (ATO), sending in the armed forces to quell the unrest. Although dozens of dominantly pro-Russian protesters were killed, the unrest in Kharkiv and Odesa oblasts did not escalate into a full-scale armed conflict. Order was restored in these regions with the cooperation of the local civil authorities, though pro-Russian disturbances, such as bombings, continued throughout the year.
Background
After the 2004 Orange Revolution, Russia launched a decade-long effort to restore its political influence in Ukraine by playing on existing domestic fault lines and undermining the central government.
Despite a crackdown on political opponents in 2011–12 (including the arrest and imprisonment of two popular pro-European leaders and including a tightening of personal freedoms), the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) agreed in early 2013 to work towards fulfilling the requirements for joining the European Union, including legislative reform, protecting human rights, and releasing political prisoners. In response, Russia started pressuring Ukraine in August 2013 by applying customs regulations on imports from the country, which culminated on 14 August 2013 with the Russian Custom Service halting goods coming from Ukraine. This prompted politicians and others to view the move as the start of a trade war against Ukraine to prevent Ukraine from signing a trade agreement with the European Union.
When president Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign an association agreement with the European Union on 21 November 2013, a protest movement dubbed Euromaidan soon developed into the largest democratic mass movement in Europe since 1989, culminating in the Revolution of Dignity, which removed Yanukovych from power following a majority vote in the Verkhovna Rada and led to the dismissal of his government.
Some people in largely Russophone Donbas, the traditional base of support for Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions, did not approve of the revolution, expressing their support for Russia instead. Historian William Jay Risch notes the spread of rumors aimed against the new Ukrainian government spread on TV and social media by local elites and Russian state media in Donbas. Russia actively supported the separatism in Ukraine, including using its high-level actors, such as Kremlin advisers Vladislav Surkov and Sergey Glazyev, who organized some of the pro-Russian protests.
The attendees of pro-Russian protests included Russian citizens from across the border who came to support the efforts of pro-Russian activists in Ukraine. Donetsk Oblast governor Serhiy Taruta said that rallies in Donetsk included ex-convicts and others who traveled from Crimea. Ukraine's police and border guards denied entry to more than 8,200 Russians between 4 and 25 March 2014. On 27 March 2014, National Security and Defence Council Secretary Andriy Parubiy said that between 500 and 700 Russians were being denied entry daily.
Public opinion in Ukraine
A poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) from 8–18 February 2014 assessed support for union with Russia throughout Ukraine. It found that, overall, 12% of those polled preferred unification with Russia. 68.0% said that Ukraine should remain independent and maintain friendly relations with Russia.
Support for a union between Russia and Ukraine was found to be much higher in certain oblasts: 41.0% in Crimea; 33.2% in Donetsk Oblast; 24.1% in Luhansk Oblast; 24.0% in Odesa Oblast; 16.7% in Zaporizhzhia Oblast; 15.1% in Kharkiv Oblast; and 13.8% in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
Another Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll the following April, of all of the oblasts of southern and eastern Ukraine except Crimea (which had already been annexed by Russia by that point), found majority opposition to secession from Ukraine and annexation by Russia in all of these oblasts—albeit only a slight majority in opposition to this in the Donbas (Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts). Opposition to secession from Ukraine and annexation by Russia (the combined percentage for the people opting for the options of "Rather, no" and "Certainly, no, I don't") had these percentages in various southern and eastern Ukrainian oblasts: 51.9% in Luhansk Oblast; 52.2% in Donetsk Oblast; 65.6% in Kharkiv Oblast; 78.8% in Odesa Oblast; 81.5% in Zaporizhzhia Oblast; 84.1% in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast; 84.6% in Kherson Oblast; 85.4% Mykolaiv Oblast.
In an opinion poll conducted from 14 to 26 March by the International Republican Institute, 26–27% of those polled in southern and eastern Ukraine viewed the Euromaidan protests as a coup d'état. Only 5% of respondents in eastern Ukraine felt that Russian-speakers were 'definitely' under pressure or threat. 13% of respondents in southern Ukraine and 22% in eastern Ukraine viewed Russia's actions in Crimea as protecting Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine, with 37% and 30% viewing them as invasion and occupation, respectively. In the poll, 22% of those in southern Ukraine and 26% of those in eastern Ukraine supported the idea of federalization for the country; 69% of southerners and 53% of easterners supported Ukraine remaining as a unitary state; and only 2% of southerners and 4% of easterners supported separatism. 59% of those polled in eastern Ukraine would have liked to join the Russian-led customs union, while only 22% were in favour of joining the European Union. 37% of southerners preferred to join this customs union, while 29% were in favour of joining the EU. 90% of those polled in western Ukraine wanted to enter an economic union with the EU, while only 4% favoured the customs union led by Russia. Among all the Ukrainians polled overall, 34% favoured joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, while 44% were against joining it. In eastern Ukraine and southern Ukraine, only 14% and 11% of the respondents, respectively, favour joining NATO, while 67% and 52% oppose joining it. 72% of people polled in eastern Ukraine thought that the country was going in the wrong direction, compared with only 36% in western Ukraine.
A poll conducted by the Donetsk Institute of Social Research and Policy Analysis analysed the identities of Donetsk inhabitants. While support for separatism was low, just over a third of polled Donetsk inhabitants identified themselves as "citizens of Ukraine". More preferred were "Russian-speaking residents of Ukraine" or "residents of Donbas". The same poll determined that 66% of Donetsk residents that were polled supported remaining in a unified Ukraine, while 18.2% supported joining Russia, and 4.7% supported independence. A second poll conducted from 26 to 29 March showed that 77% of residents condemned the takeover of administrative buildings, while 16% supported such actions. Furthermore, 40.8% of Donetsk citizens supported rallies for Ukraine's unity, while 26.5% supported pro-Russian rallies.
In another research poll conducted 8–16 April by KIIS, a vast majority disapproved of the seizure of administrative buildings by protesters. 45% of those polled in the south and east of Ukraine considered acting President Oleksandr Turchynov to be legitimate, while over 50% not. Most of those polled in the south and east of Ukraine believed that the disarmament and disbandment of illegal radical groups is crucial to preserving national unity. 19.1% of those polled in the south and east of Ukraine believed that Ukraine should be an independent state; 45.2% were for an independent state but with decentralization of the power to the regions, but most felt Russia and Ukraine should share open borders without visa restrictions; 8.4% were in favour of Ukraine and Russia uniting into a single state. 15.4% said they favoured secession of their region to join the Russian Federation, and 24.8% favoured Ukraine becoming a federation. Most of those polled said they found nothing attractive about Russia, but those who did did so for economic, and not cultural reasons. Those polled in southern and eastern Ukraine were generally split on the legitimacy of the present government and parliament, but a majority in all regions agreed that deposed president Viktor Yanukovych was not the legal president of the country. In all regions but the Donbas, pro-Euromaidan oligarch Petro Poroshenko dominated preliminary election polls.
A comprehensive poll released on 8 May by the Pew Research Centre surveyed opinions in Ukraine on the subject of the unrest. The poll was taken after the annexation of Crimea, but prior to the clashes in Odesa on 2 May. 93% of Westerners and 70% of Easterners polled said that they wanted Ukraine to remain united. Despite international criticism of the 16 March referendum on Crimean status, 91% of the Crimeans polled thought that the vote was free and fair, and 88% said that the Ukrainian government should accept the results.
Anti-Maidan
During the Euromaidan Revolution, there were widespread reports that pro-Yanukovych and pro-Russian anti-Maidan protesters were paid for their support. Oleksiy Haran, a political scientist at Kyiv Mohyla Academy in Kyiv, stated that people at anti-Maidan are only interested in money. The government uses these hirelings to provoke resistance. They won't be sacrificing anything." Russian leader of the extremist Eurasian Youth Union Oleg Bakhtiyarov was arrested for, in part, recruiting rioters for US$500 each to assist in the storming of government buildings. On 13 April, the Internal Affairs Ministry stated that recruiters were found to be paying $500 to take part in the attacks and 500 UAH (roughly $40) to occupy buildings.
Reports of paid protesters were supported by Party of Regions member Volodymyr Landik and the First Deputy Prime Minister Vitaliy Yarema.
Russian and Ukrainian sources differed greatly in the way they portrayed the pro-Russian demonstrators. Militants who took over government buildings in the Donetsk Oblast were consistently labeled as "separatists" and "terrorists" by the Ukrainian government and the Western media, whilst Russian media and officials referred to the protesters as "supporters of federalization". Russian media and the militants themselves referred to the Ukrainian transitional government in Kyiv as "nationalist" and as "fascist". Russian news broadcasts also featured claims of foreign involvement on the side of the Ukrainian government. In the Ukrainian media, the derogatory term "Colorado beetle" was used for the pro-Russian demonstrators and militants, in reference to the Ribbon of St. George they wore. Starting in the Russian media, the wave of unrest came to be referred to in Russia and Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine as the "Russian Spring", a reference to both the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Arab Spring of 2010–2011.
Unrest by region
Crimea
Following the removal of Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych on 22 February 2014, various protests and counter-protests were held in Crimea, including by anti-Maidan Russian nationalists who sought the peninsula's annexation by Russia and by Crimean Tatars who supported Ukrainian unity.
Beginning on 26 February, unidentified militants, subsequently confirmed to be Russian troops by Vladimir Putin, began to gradually take control of the Crimean Peninsula. During this time, the question of joining the Russian Federation was put to a referendum, which had an official turnout of 83 per cent and resulted in a 96% affirmative vote but has been condemned by European Union, American, Ukrainian, and Crimean Tatar officials and by the United Nations General Assembly as a violation of the Ukrainian constitution and international law. On 17 March, the Crimean Parliament declared independence from Ukraine and asked to join the Russian Federation. On 18 March, Russia and Crimea signed a treaty of accession of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol into the Russian Federation. On 21 March, the accession treaty was ratified, and the establishment of two new constituent entities in the Russian Federation was marked by a 30-gun salute under an executive order of the Russian President. The U.N. General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution by 100 to 11 votes declaring that the referendum was invalid and that the incorporation of Crimea into Russia was illegal.