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Vote in the "People's Council" of the "Donetsk People's Republic" on Tuesday morning to ratify an agreement with Russia
Photo: Ilya Pitalev / imago images / SNA
The two currently most prominent territories in Europe are abbreviated with unspectacular letters: LNR and DNR.
The abbreviations stand for "Luganskaya Narodnaya Respublika" and "Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika", which translates as "Luhansk People's Republic" and "Donetsk People's Republic" - those eastern Ukrainian regions that had declared themselves independent "people's republics" in 2014 and are now probably from to be incorporated into Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Monday evening that he would recognize the breakaway areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states.
In addition, the Russian head of state ordered the start of a military "peacekeeping mission" in the areas controlled by pro-Russian separatists, including the official deployment of troops.
On Tuesday night, the Russian news agency Interfax reported sightings of "columns of armored military vehicles" in the territory of the "Donetsk People's Republic".
The West responded with sanctions: Immediately after Putin's speech, the European Union and the United States announced measures to punish individuals and businesses in Russia and the separatist areas.
But how did the war in eastern Ukraine come about?
Why is Putin now recognizing the "People's Republics"?
Is there really a genocide against the Russian-speaking population, as the Kremlin claims?
What else you need to know about the breakaway regions and the conflict in eastern Ukraine - an overview:
How did the war in eastern Ukraine come about?
Ukraine experienced a period of political instability between 2013 and 2014.
After the then government in Kiev announced that it did not want to sign an association agreement with the European Union, pro-European mass protests erupted in Kiev, which became known as »Euromaidan«.
Over a hundred demonstrators and several police officers were killed during the protests.
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However, the "Euromaidan" was not just about an agreement, but about a directional decision on the future of Ukraine.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated for rapprochement and future accession of Ukraine to the EU.
The then government under Viktor Yanukovych, whom the demonstrators accused of corruption, was more pro-Russian.
Among other things, Russia used this unstable phase to annex the Crimean Peninsula.
In addition, thanks to Russia's covert support, separatist militias were formed in the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts (districts) and have since been fighting for Donbas' secession from Ukraine and its integration with Russia.
How hard have the fights been so far?
According to the UN, more than 14,000 people have been killed since the fighting began in 2014, many of them civilians.
Over 2,000 people died in 2014 alone, during the height of the fighting.
In the context of the armed conflict, on July 17, 2014, the Malaysia Airlines passenger plane MH17, which was en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down.
All 289 people on board the plane died.
The prosecution at the later trial blames three Russians and one Ukrainian for shooting down the Boeing with a Russian anti-aircraft missile.
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How did the "People's Republics" DNR and LNR come into existence?
The DNR and LNR consist of those areas in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts – that is, in Ukraine's Donbass region – that broke away from Kiev in 2014 as a result of the war between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists.
Both “people's republics” were proclaimed by pro-Russian militias in April 2014 after occupying several administrative buildings.
As recently as 2014, the separatists had had the population vote on the autonomy of the two areas.
The question put to the vote was: "Do you support the independence of the Donetsk/Luhansk People's Republic?" According to media reports, however, residents were allowed to vote as often as they wanted.
The referendums have been declared illegal by the Ukrainian government, the EU, the US and the OSCE.
What is the territory of the people's republics composed of?
The territory of the "People's Republics" currently corresponds to the areas militarily occupied by the pro-Russian fighters in the war against Ukraine - about a third of the areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The "line of contact" with the rest of Ukraine, which is more than 400 kilometers long, corresponds in fact to the military front on the basis of which the 2015 Minsk agreement was ratified.
How did you try to end the conflict?
The Minsk I and Minsk II agreements were intended to end the fighting in Donbass.
The then Chancellor Angela Merkel, the then French President François Hollande, the then Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the negotiations in September 2014 and February 2015.
A ceasefire was agreed both times, but both sides repeatedly broke it.
Despite this, the agreement initially succeeded in calming the conflict to a considerable extent.
This was shown above all by the fact that the borders of the separatist areas correspond to the 2015 front.
You can read more about the Minsk negotiations here.
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Since Monday evening, however, the Minsk agreements have been history.
To justify his recognition of the "people's republics," Putin said there was "no longer any prospect" for the Minsk accords to be honored.
Who lives in the separatist areas?
Almost four million people live in the two “people's republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The vast majority of the population is Russian-speaking and mostly pro-Russian.
However, this is partly due to the refugee movements that have been taking place since 2014.
According to Caritas, 1.5 million people from Donbass have left their home towns for either Ukraine or Russia in the past eight years.
Among other things, this means that there used to be more ethnic Ukrainians living in peace with the Russians in the region than now.
Since the self-proclaimed »People's Republics«, Russia has been trying to incorporate the population of the Donbass in a bureaucratic manner.
Authorities are said to have already distributed more than 800,000 Russian passports in the separatist areas.
Who governs the "People's Republics"?
The areas under Separatist control are governed by militia leaders.
The rebel leader in Luhansk is called Leonid Passechnik. In a video message broadcast on Russian television on Monday he officially asked Russia to recognize the "People's Republic".
The separatist leader in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Puschilin, joined the demand.
How is life in the separatist areas?
Since their de facto secession from Ukraine, Russia has supported the separatist areas with financial grants.
According to independent media reports, the Russian Federation finances, among other things, the salaries of employees in the public sector and pensions.
Nevertheless, people in the People's Republics sometimes live under difficult conditions, caused by institutional limbo, economic sanctions from the West - and ultimately by the war.
SPIEGEL last reported on life in the separatist areas in 2019.
In general, it is almost impossible for journalists to report from the territory of the »People's Republics«.
Why does Putin speak of a "genocide" against the Russian-speaking population?
Apart from the geopolitical reasons that the Russian President has discussed in recent weeks, another argument has come to the fore at least since Putin's speech on Monday evening: Putin has been claiming for some time that a "genocide" by Ukraine is taking place in the Donbass Russian-speaking population.
A completely fabricated claim that even Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz described as "ridiculous".
As absurd as Putin's statements may sound, they play a central role in justifying the recognition of the separatist areas.
Putin appears to be pursuing an ethno-nationalist agenda that apparently aims to absorb Russian-speaking areas from former Soviet states, as happened in the case of the war against Georgia over the Russian-speaking regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and the annexation of Crimea.
How are Ukraine and the West reacting to Putin's statement and the Russian military operation?
The West had already threatened sanctions in the run-up to recognizing the »people's republics«.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel announced punitive measures against people involved in the plot on Monday evening.
The US announced that it would ban doing business with or in the separatist areas.
You can read more about the reactions from the West here.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the government in Kiev would not respond to provocations - but would not give up any territory either.
"We are faithful to the peaceful and diplomatic path and will only follow this one," he said.
On Monday evening, Selenskyj spoke to Chancellor Scholz, French President Macron and US President Joe Biden, among others.
What's next?
After the recognition of the "people's republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk, the situation has in no way calmed down - on the contrary.
Putin also seems to want to bring other parts of the two administrative districts of Donetsk and Luhansk under control.
The "people's republics" are recognized "within the limits in which they were proclaimed," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday, according to the Interfax agency.
In 2014 the front was much deeper in Ukrainian territory than it is now.
