Donbas secessionism

Donbas secessionism is a movement in Eastern Ukraine, especially in Donbas that claim the secession of some oblasts from Ukraine to Russia or being of them as an independent state. Wide autonomy in Ukraine is considered as a compromise.

History
The east of Ukraine was populated by Ukrainians only in 18th century, but all the time before Ukraine proclaimed its independence in 1991 Ukrainian population had been strongly russificated. In addition to this fact, many Russians settled in Donbas. That made an ethnically mixed population, though consolidated positions of Russian language and culture. The boundaries of the Russian diaspora remain fluid, a factor that increased after the USSR disintegrated. Because "Russian" was tantamount to "Soviet", Soviet citizens, especially from mixed marriages, often chose to identify themselves as "Russians" for career purposes. Leonid Kuchma declared himself to be a Russian when he was elected to the Ukrainian parliament in March 1990. Two years later, as prime minister, he had become a Ukrainian. Ukraine's first defense minister, Konstantin Morozov, is another case in point. In the Soviet military, the top positions were exclusively reserved for Russians. If one's parents were mixed and only one was Russian, children usually became "Russian." In the late Soviet era, when Morozov supported the , he researched his family background and found it to be Ukrainian. As he would eventually put it: "I personally know Ukrainian families in the Donbas who officially registered as Russian because they did not want to be considered second-class citizens or associated with a politically disenfranchised ethnic group". The fluidity of "Russian" identity can be seen in post-Soviet census. In Ukraine the number of Russians has declined since the 1989 Soviet census. The 2001 Ukrainian census registered a 5 percent decline in the number of Russians (a drop of 3 million in absolute numbers) and a similar increase in Ukrainians from 72 to 77 percent, compared with the 1989

According to last Ukrainian census in 2001 almost all Russians and a half of Ukrainians living in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts said that their native language is Russian.

It is popular to consider Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic as a predecessor of wanted state. There is an opinion, that the flag of the movement or its reversed version was the state flag of this republic.

Activity during Orange Revolution

Time of the Orange Revolution was one of the most active periods of the movement. When the election of Victor Yushchenko became real, that caused a great anxiety in Eastern and Southern Ukraine. Yushchenko was commonly reputed as Ukrainian nationalist, who would forbidden using of Russian language, break up relations with Russia and make Ukraine a member of “anti-Russian” NATO. It caused a rising in Southern and Eastern oblasts. As a first step, the session of Luhansk Oblast council made the resolve to create Autonomous South-Eastern Republic on 26 November 2004. The deputies announced closing the frontier and addressed their request for help to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Next day the special session of Kharkiv Oblast council decided to create the committees of oblast and raion councils and to authorize them state jurisdiction. It was entrusted to Yevhen Kushnaryov, chairman of Kharkiv Oblast council, to have coordination with councils of Crimea, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Luhansk, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv Oblasts and Sevastopol (10 regions, where Viktor Yanukovych won the majority). In case of escalation, Yevhen Kushnaryov had to coordinate actions of South-Eastern Autonomy creation. The spokesmen of the Odesa Oblast council announced an intention to conduct the Assembly of all levels' deputies from South-Eastern Ukraine in order to proclaim the land as free self-governing territory.

On 28 November 2004 such a congress in Sieverodonetsk, city in Donbas, took place. There were about 4 thousand delegates from 17 regions of Ukraine. It wasn't officially supported by Russia, however such significant persons in Russian politics like Yury Luzhkov attended it and expressed their approval. The Sieverodonetsk congress resolved that in the case, if Viktor Yushchenko come to power, they'll take such actions as it'd need to protect the rights of its population up to creation of South-Eastern Autonomy. Kharkiv was selected as the place of coordinating center. In Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts there was also decided to take a referendum in the first half of December about the status of separate Republics as the members of “Ukrainian Federation”. Moreover, the oblast councils of Luhansk, Kharkiv and Donetsk claimed the subordination of police and other state formation to it self and ceasing of money transferring to Ukrainian budget.

Victor Yushchenko became the President of Ukraine on 23 January 2005, but neither ukrainization became significantly stronger nor relations with Russia broke up. Ukraine isn't a member of NATO yet. None of pro-Russian intentions in Ukraine were realized, no South-Eastern Republic is currently in force.

Current situation
Supporters of the movement call discrimination of Russian culture, language and history as the main motives to separate from Ukraine.

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