ABOUT DONBAS REGION AUTONOMY

The possibility of a political solution in Ukraine can only consist of a special autonomous status for the Donbas region within Ukraine. This solution corresponds to history and local reality, because the Donbas is in fact a region with its own culture and traditions.

The two Donbas provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk have had de facto autonomy from Kiev for a long time. Going back to czarist times, Donbass has always been a largely autonomous region that socially, politically and economically speaking did not entirely adapt to any central ruling power. Since the 1930s, they've been the bastions of Ukraine's Stalinist Communist Party, which remained highly influential until the revolution and war of 2013-2014. Since 2001, both provinces have been the stronghold of the Party of Regions, which largely drew its functionaries and electorate from the Communists and which served as the springboard for Ukraine's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. Historically, Donbass known officially as the Donets Basin, which encompasses the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts was the center of Soviet industrialism, a region that symbolized the power of Soviet might where towns and cities sprung up alongside coal mines and factories. .

Donbass’ location was key for developing an important industrial zone based on coal, heavy industry and, later, the implementation of newer technologies. After independence in 1991, the factories left and unemployment and other social problems took hold but Donbass largely kept its political autonomy and developed local power structures that essentially made it a state within a state.

Donbas residents have a strong regional identity that values Russian language, pro-Russian foreign policy orientations and a Soviet interpretation of Ukrainian history. For Donbas residents, an ideal Ukraine is a welfare state which provides social protection for its citizens, which preserves peace and stability, and which is strongly present in the international arena.

From the regional referendum of 1994 to the Russian-sympathetic protests in downtown Donetsk in early March of 2014, Donbas has been demanding more autonomy from the central government in Kyiv, that Russian be an official, second language of Ukraine, and that a close political alliance be maintained with Russia.

On September 16, 2014, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada voted on a law put forth by President Petro Poroshenko granting special status to the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. The parliamentary deputies supported the law, which prolongs the autonomy of several districts in south-eastern Ukraine to three years. Two hundred and seventy-seven of the Verkhovna Rada’s 450 deputies voted in favor of the law, which grants special status to the Donbass and calls for elections and the free use of the Russian language. Poroshenko said that this law will make it possible to decentralize authority in south-eastern Ukraine. The president also expects these changes to be reflected in the Ukrainian constitution.