Talk:War in Donbas/Archive 12

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The war started on April 6th, not April 12th 2014

The War in Donbas (2014–2022) and the absolute rebellion began on April 6, 2014 in Donetsk and Luhansk, and on April 12 it only escalated into an armed uprising. In the period of six days (April 6 - 12), there were already dozens of injured and wounded. The first military corps of the armed forces of Ukraine entered the Donbass on April 9, and the uprising in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk was still three days away. April 6 is the precise date of the beginning of the war in Donbass (2014 - 2022) when the rebels seized state institutions in the two largest cities of Donbass, Donetsk and Lugansk. The following day, the unrecognized Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics were formed, and in the next six days, the rebels occupied various administrative offices. There are sources of information about all this. I don't hear anything vague. – Baba Mica (talk) 20:57, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

What “absolute rebellion”? Pro-Russian demonstrations began February 23, 2014, not April 6. They included violence, and I believe their first fatal victim was in Donetsk on March 13. This was not the Donbas War.

The first military operation by Russian-controlled forces started April 12, 2014, and they haven’t stopped fighting yet.  —Michael Z. 21:32, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

For the record, here is my edit with sources.[1]

• Galeotti, Mark; Hook, Adam (2019). Windrow, Martin (ed.). Armies of Russia's war in Ukraine. Elite. Oxford New York, NY: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4728-3345-7., pages=14–16.
• Mitrokhin, Nikolay (2021). "Infiltration, Instruction, Invasion: Russia's War in the Donbas". In Hauter, Jakob; Wilson, Andrew (eds.). Civil war? Interstate war? Hybrid war? dimensions and interpretations of the Donbas Conflict in 2014-2020. Soviet and post-Soviet politics and society. Stuttgart: ibidem Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8382-7383-9., page=115.

 —Michael Z. 22:51, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Baba Mica, where are your sources for the claim that "the war started on April 6th"? This is the line you added to the lead: "The war nominally commenced on 6 April 2014,[2] with the Ukrainian government announcing a large scale military response to pro-Russian separatists". That reference doesn't say the war began on April 6th, it says "demonstrators stormed the government building on April 6". Armed separatists seized Sloviansk on April 12th, and the Ukrainian government began its anti-terrorist operation on April 15th. – Asarlaí ^(talk) 09:09, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

On April 6, there was an escalation of the conflict with the incursion of pro-Russian or Russian separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk into state institutions, and on April 12 they occupied state institutions in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk. Before the start of Ukrainian ATO on April 13, pro-Russian separatists occupied state institutions in Mariupol as well. On April 6, the burning of tires, the setting up of barricades and numerous injuries to members of the Ukrainian police began. The army of Ukraine started the military operation only on April 15, nine days late, and the Russians have already occupied strategic points in Donetsk, Lugansk, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Mariupol and Baḫmut. In 2014, the armed forces of Ukraine were quite late with the ATO, and Russia already had logistics ready to raise a rebellion. The protests lasted from February 23 to April 6, when separatists permanently occupied government buildings in Donetsk and Lugansk with the intention of escalating the conflict, which only spread to other cities on April 12. Ukraine was not militarily strong at the time, and on April 6, the separatists also occupied Kharkiv. However, at the last moment, the authorities suppressed the uprising in Kharkiv on April 30. A rebellion broke out in Odessa on April 16, when the Odessa People's Republic was proclaimed, and two days after the suppression of the rebellion in Kharkiv, emboldened Ukrainian nationalists brutally suppressed the rebellion in Odessa, which led to the collapse of pro-Russian protests in Russian-speaking regions. However, it was already too late for Donbas due to mass desertion and active Russian assistance in armaments. – Baba Mica (talk) 22:49, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Simple question. Sources explicitly stating a start to the war on 6 April? Cinderella157 (talk) 23:11, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

Baba Mica, everything on Wikipedia must be verifiable. Michael has shown us sources saying the war began on 12 April, but you haven't shown us any sources saying it began on 6 April. We know government buildings were occupied by separatists around that time, but the first armed capture and first armed conflict were on 12 April (see Siege of Sloviansk and Battle of Kramatorsk). – Asarlaí ^(talk) 23:15, 26 May 2023 (UTC)

What is important and fundamental are both Ukrainian and Russian claims that the general uprising began on April 6 with the capture of Donetsk and Luhansk. Kramatorsk and Sloviansk were occupied only six days later. From February 23 to April 6, there were mostly peaceful protests combined with occasional riots and clashes with the police and occasional deaths. Institutions were attacked mostly on Sundays. Since April 6, the institutions in Donetsk and Luhansk have been permanently occupied, which led to radicalization the very next day, when two separatist states, DPR and LNR, were declared. Riots and clashes became a daily occurrence between April 6 and 12 throughout Donbass. On April 6, Russia decided to start a rougher game aimed at, at best, wider decentralization and autonomy of the Donbass and Russophone areas, and at worst, direct separation, which will occur de facto on May 11, 2014, and de jure on February 21, 2022. three days before the invasion. Numerous sources in the chronology of this eight-year, small-scale war speak of constant clashes with the use of firearms between April 6 and 12, both in Donetsk and Luhansk, and throughout the Donbass. Things escalate on April 12 into a wider conflict after Sloviansk and Kramatorsk when the Ukrainian leadership launches the ATO the next morning. Between April 6 and 12, numerous roadblocks sprung up across Donbas, which is a clear act of the beginning of the civil war and armed rebellion. On April 6, 2014, Ukraine lost control over the two most important cities in Donbass (Donetsk and Luhansk), although the army still controlled some peripheral parts of the city. However, Ukraine at that time, which had not yet stabilized after the Maidan, did not lose between April 6 and 12 Donetsk and Lugansk and some other places due to some military success of the separatists, but due to the mass desertion of Russian personnel employed in security structures. The first resistance of that transitional government of Yatsenyuk came only after the loss of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on April 12, when it became clear that the separatists did not want negotiations but secession along the lines of Crimea, and after that day the then head of the CIA visited Kiev and presented a detailed plan to interim president Turchynov the USA will stand behind the territorial integrity of Ukraine. This encouraged the then acting president to launch ATO on April 13, which he did. Between April 6 and 13, the cities of Donbass fell one after the other like pears due to mass desertion (instigated and coordinated from Moscow) until the Ukrainian authorities used force after Sloviansk and Kramatorsk because there was a danger that it would be their turn after Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts Kharkiv Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia Oblasts, and in correlation with the USA, a decision was reached to at least limit the inevitable armed conflict to Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, which is what happened. The events between April 6 and 13 are the turning point of this war. If the Russians had not permanently occupied the residences or if they had been prevented on April 6, 2014, the separatist republics of the DPR and LNR would not have been declared on April 7 and 8, there would not have been mass desertions between April 6 and 13, it would not have been the same the scenario was easily implemented on April 12 in Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and Ukraine would not have been forced to start ATO in Donbass on April 13. This event is the most important and key moment of the beginning of this limited war Capture of Donetsk (2014). A template for this article needs to be created urgently, and an article on the Capture of Lugansk (2014) is also needed. Everything started on the same day and went on the path of escalation and peaceful protests suddenly turned into riots and desertion, and desertion is an act of war. Another thing is that Ukraine hesitated to suppress the rebellion for seven days, so the separatists got stronger and occupied Sloviansk and Kramatorsk and subsequent Russian interference by inserting GRU agents like Igor Girkin Strelkov. The logistics were ready if Ukraine refused decentralization or federalization of the state, which the leadership from Kiev categorically refused, and the signal from Moscow was given that after the third raid on the representative offices on April 6, there would be no more retreat and that the path of armed rebellion should be taken to all goals. It is likely that the Ukrainian leadership prolonged the ATO for seven days because of possible negotiations with the separatists and because of consultations with the USA, what if the separatists and Russia reject the Ukrainian proposals. In the meantime, the situation worsened, desertions increased and Sloviansk and Kramatorsk fell on April 12. After the devil took the joke and the rebellion began to spread more and more in the cities of Donbass, after assurances of support from Washington, Kiev was encouraged to start the ATO on April 13, but many cities and members of the authorities deserted between April 6 and 13 from the Ukrainian security structures and approached the separatists and formed their own parallel police and army that occupied in that second and crucial week of April 2014 town by town, place by place, village by village. – Baba Mica (talk) 01:37, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

When did armed Russians enter eastern Ukraine and start fighting?  —Michael Z. 14:11, 28 May 2023 (UTC)

OP was asked to supply sources to support their claim but haven't. This wall of words is unhelpful. It does not address the issue of when sources say the war started, which is how we determine the matter. More of the same could easily be considered disruptive. Cinderella157 (talk) 01:11, 29 May 2023 (UTC)

Guys, let's stop arguing because I found definitive sources from the Russian and Ukrainian sides where both claim that the War in Donbass began on April 6, 2014 with the attacks of state institutions by pro-Russian separatists, but not only that. On the same day, they occupied ammunition warehouses, which they then looted. The Russians themselves claim that and they don't hide it at all, and the Ukrainians also claim it because they talk about the building of barricades and the beginning of an armed rebellion from that day. On April 12, it escalated even more when Russian services sent Igor Girkin (alias Strelkov) who, after the takeover of Donetsk, Bakhmut and Toretsk (then Dzerzhinsk) by local separatists (Zakharchenko, Motorola and Givi), was tasked with taking control and over Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, where the Ukrainian army stopped the further spread of desertion towards Kharkiv Oblast and the next day started a special military operation. From April 6 to 12, Ukrainians lost cities and villages due to the support of the population with pro-Russian sentiment, but from April 13, the Ukrainian government finally began to suppress the rebellion that began due to the mass desertion of police and military officers who looted warehouses on April 6. with weapons and ammunition and then started erecting barricades throughout Donbass, and only armed with a link to the FSU and GRU were they able to declare the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics on April 7 and 8. The Russians publicly admit it, and I discovered in conversation with Donbass Russians and following their media and telegram channels that they celebrate April 6 as the day of the uprising in Donbass.

″Сегодня — годовщина начала вооруженного восстания на Донбассе.

Русская весна (начало национально-освободительного движения в Новороссии) стартовала 21 февраля в Крыму. Датой начала русско-украинской войны следует считать 13 апреля, когда было принято решение о проведении «АТО» (после того как 12 апреля отряд Стрелкова занял Славянск). А начало вооруженного восстания на Донбассе — это 6 апреля. Именно в этот день отряд Болотова занял сдание СБУ в Луганске, а в Донецке русские захватили здание администрации.

Посмотрите этот репортаж от 6 апреля, обратите внимание на то, что несколько раз в нем повторяется: повстанцы вывешивают российские флаги и хотят провести референдум о воссоединении с Россией.

Прошел год. Образованные в апреле две республики сохранили свою независимость, но контролируют только часть своих территорий. В ходе войны тысячи людей погибли, некоторые города и поселки полностью разрушены. Ни Болотова, ни Стрелкова на Донбассе давно нет, как нет и сотен людей, кто тогда в апреле поднимал флаги, выходил на баррикады и брал в руки оружие. И российских флагов здесь давно нигде нет…

Но те весенние дни уже вошли в русскую историю. Героическое восстание в Новороссии — это то, чем мы можем по-настоящему гордиться. Четверть века русские переживали невыносимое национальное унижение. Четверть века мы говорили о трагедии распада России и разделении русского народа. В 2014 году мы наконец получили шанс побороться за наше единство, защитить русскую честь, вернуть национальное достоинство. И пусть мы еще не добились своих целей (скорее мы только в начале пути) и наш народ по-прежнему разделен, мы получили бесценный опыт вооруженной борьбы за свободу и единство русского народа. И наша борьба продолжается.

Я по праву горжусь тем, что почти с самого начала принял участие в Донбасском восстании. Будет что рассказать детям и внукам, если доживу. Нам всем будет что рассказать.

И хочется надеяться, что еще все впереди.

Слава России!″ — Ру

Russian news - 6. april 2015;

″Today is the year of the beginning of the armed uprising in the Donbass.

The Russian Spring (the beginning of the national liberation movement in Novorossii) started on February 21 in Crimea. The date of the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian military should be counted as April 13, when the decision was made to implement "ATO" (after that, on April 12, the Strelkova zanal Slavansk unit). And the beginning of the armed uprising in the Donbass — here is April 6. It was on this day that the Bolotov detachment took over the SBU in Lugansk, and in Donetsk the Russians captured the administration building.

See this report from April 6, note that it is repeated several times: rebels are flying Russian flags and want to hold a referendum on reunification with Russia.

An hour has passed. The two republics formed in April have retained their independence, but control only part of their territories. During the war, thousands of people died, some cities and settlements were completely destroyed. Neither Bolotov nor Strelkov have been in Donbas for a long time, just like the hundreds of people who raised flags, went to the barricades and took up arms in April. And there have been no Russian flags here for a long time...

But those spring days have already entered Russian history. The heroic uprising in Novorossia is something we can really be proud of. For a quarter of a century, Russians experienced unbearable national humiliation. For a quarter of a century we talked about the tragedy of the disintegration of Russia and the division of the Russian people. In 2014, we finally got a chance to fight for our unity, protect Russian honor and restore national dignity. And even if we have not yet achieved our goals (more precisely, we are only at the beginning of the journey) and our people are still divided, we have gained invaluable experience in the armed struggle for the freedom and unity of the Russian people. And our fight continues.

I am rightfully proud of the fact that I participated in the uprising in Donbas almost from the beginning. I will have something to tell my children and grandchildren if I survive. We all have something to say.

And I hope that everything is still ahead of us.

Slava Russia!″ — Eng

Here, Ukrainian sources claim absolutely the same;

″6 квітня 2014 року невідомі озброєні люди захопили Донецьку ОДА. 7 квітня у залі засідань Донецької облради група громадян з області оголосила про створення «Донецької народної республіки». Того ж дня на мітингу у Харкові оголосили про створення «Харківської народної республіки»″. − Ук

″On April 6, 2014, unknown armed men seized the Donetsk regional state administration. On April 7, in the meeting hall of the Donetsk Regional Council, a group of citizens from the region announced the creation of the "Donetsk People's Republic." On the same day, at a meeting in Kharkiv, the creation of the "Kharkov People's Republic" was announced″. — Eng

Both warring parties claim the same as I do, and only you from the Anglo-Saxon area claim the opposite. You from the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand cannot know better about the war between Russia and Ukraine than the Russians and Ukrainians themselves, who are bleeding and dying there in the first eight years by the thousands, and in the last 500 days since the Russian invasion, they are dying in tens or even hundreds of thousands. They hate each other, but at least they agree on something. These are the dates when they started attacking each other, and the Russians have a tendency to declare all such dates as holidays even at the state level. I thank you so much. — Baba Mica (talk) 04:37, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Sources need to be reliable. Manyareasexpert (talk) 13:41, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

Of course they are absolutely reliable. I don't have access to the SBU, FSU, or GRU archives because I would lose my head 100%. — Baba Mica (talk) 01:10, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 27 August 2023

2A02:C7C:AA58:7B00:D5C6:4954:5C67:1092 (talk) 13:52, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

The war in Donbass is still ongoing

 Not done This article is about the Russian aggression before the beginning of the large-scale invasion. Rsk6400 (talk) 14:22, 27 August 2023 (UTC)

Russian-backed separatists seized government buildings

The lead says
The war began in April 2014 when armed Russian-backed separatists seized government buildings and the Ukrainian military launched an operation against them.
Which sources in article body support that?

Because, for example, "Ukraine's Unnamed War" p. 147 says -
... a fifty-man commando unit arrived to reinforce insurgents. They chose as their target Sloviansk, a small town three hours north of Donetsk. With the assistance of local militias who had raided weapons from state storage lockers, the commando unit cordoned off the city. In response, the interim Ukrainian president declared an “anti-terrorist operation” (Antyterorystychna operatsiia, hereafter ATO) and gave orders for the army to deploy. Within days, the first servicemen were killed. Heavy weapons entered the theater, initiating high-intensity fighting. Fighting never fully deescalated. Ukraine descended into war. (my bold). Manyareasexpert (talk) 13:50, 8 July 2023 (UTC)

You are right about the military and civilian casualties since April 12, and I agree with you where that quote is, but the essence of the beginning of the war was not only the dead but also the wounded, and especially the armed rebellion of April 6 and especially the mass looting of military warehouses and weapons warehouses. What does it mean when he robs certain warehouses with weapons and ammunition in an environment that was absolutely against the new authorities? Isn't o an act of war? They certainly did not rob them to play with the children or to destroy them, but they did the robbery to start an armed rebellion, which they immediately did on the same day according to an already prepared scenario. I have sent you a dozen sources that are absolutely reliable, and at the same time, the Russians and the Ukrainians themselves admit that there was an intrusion into state institutions and that an armed rebellion began that day, and leave more Igor Girkin "Strelkov" who is on the night between the 11th and 12th .sent from Russia in April to stoke the fire even more and was only a useful idiot of Moscow until he was defeated in the July offensive by Poroshenko. This topic affects me personally because in those days and months I spent sleepless days and nights following the situation in Donbas, which cost me my health. I remember the broadcast of separatists storming state institutions for the third time on April 6 (previously on March 5 and 22), but from that day they never left until today, and by the end of the day they were taking pictures with weapons for the first time and started setting up barricades and shooting. There may not have been any deaths, but there were injuries and gunshot wounds, and from that day on, ANARCHY reigned in Donbas, which lasted for seven days and reached its CULMINATION in Slavjansk and Kramatorsk. Is it possible that no one will look and read Russian and Ukrainian sources in their own language from their media? Not likely how rude and vain you Anglo-Saxons are that you only consider your media relevant, even though your governments have quarreled with those two Slavic peoples. Terrible. I am outraged at your sources of information, the English Wikipedia, not to mention the media. Ukrainian and Russian media are "unreliable", and everything happens with them and their people die, while your media is "reliable" while you snack on seeds, drink Coca Cola, eat hamburgers and watch everything from the side as if you are enjoying while those people are being killed and you are still brainwashing the whole world. I'm not telling you personally as a user because you're just an editor like me and a lover of information and encyclopedia, but it's amazing how much you from the English Wikipedia don't appreciate someone's effort to find what both warring sides say and claim. The Russians boast that they started an uprising in the Donbass on April 6, and that's not enough for you? The media from Donbass and Russia (which you don't recognize) are telling lies when the residents with separatist aspirations really rebelled against the government in Kiev (even though they were there on the spot), and the reliable sources are from CNN, BBC and the like hundreds of kilometers away and maybe they joined the rinks only on April 12 or 13? Such conceit, rudeness, insolence, unprofessionalism and discrimination that I simply have no words. I spent many years editing articles related to the Donbass and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but with you Anglo-Saxons like you are, it's just a waste of time and I better get out of the way and stop bothering about stupid things. You're asking me to feed you information from CNN and the BBC who haven't paid much attention to the events in Donetsk since April 6, 2014, and you yourself won't even bother to comb through the news from that day while someone else's effort and you underestimate other media extremely condescendingly with a huge dose of cynicism. But what can I do for you? You are such a people. You have the force (weapons and media). I do not have that. I don't think of struggling again. I have neither the reason nor the will to bother myself. — Baba Mica (talk) 02:04, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

"you Anglo-Saxons like you are" - what kind of racist personal attack is this? I haven't been keeping up with the whole discussion so I don't know who's right in terms of content, but you need to cut that kind of thing out. HappyWith (talk) 18:12, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Ukrainian Wikipedia: https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D1%96%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D1%81%D1%85%D0%BE%D0%B4%D1%96_%D0%A3%D0%BA%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%97%D0%BD%D0%B8

Russian Wikipedia: https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%B9%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%B2_%D0%94%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B1%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%81%D0%B5_(2014%E2%80%942022)

That's enough from me. I don't have the strength anymore. — Baba Mica (talk) 02:10, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

@Baba Mica: WP:tl;dr. Rsk6400 (talk) 05:40, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

Baba_Mica, you do need to provide sources for this. The source used in the Ukrainian and Russian wikipedias for the April 6 date is Rand's Lessons from Russia’s Operations in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine but I haven't found where they say that the conflict started on that date. Alaexis_¿question? 07:22, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

That's right, RAND report just gives list of important events on that page and just gives "April 2014" as war start date. Manyareasexpert (talk) 17:05, 9 July 2023 (UTC)

References

Is there a consensus in reliable sources stating when this war started?

A civil[ian] uprising began on 6 April. On 12 April, the "anti-terrorist operation" by the Urkranian armed forces was launched. I have searched the TP archives and find these two related discussions: Talk:War in Donbas (2014–2022)/Archive 5#Starting date of the war could be revised (September 2014) and Talk:War in Donbas (2014–2022)/Archive 11#Start date (January 2023).

A quick perusal would indicate that editors have argued there own opinions on when the war started, rather than relying on sources which explicitly state "the war started on ..." This is clearly WP:OR. In this present thread, an editor is arguing that the war started on 6 April. The sources they would add to the article in support of this state that the civil uprising began on 6 April. They do not explicitly state that "the war started on 6 April". The source quoted above by Manyareasexpert states: Fighting never fully deescalated. Ukraine descended into war - ie there is no clear point [in April] at which this became a war. The article lead does not attempt to specify a date, stating: The war began in April 2014 ... I am not seeing the body of the article specifying (with sources) a particular date in April. However, the infobox would attempt to specify a particular date. I have edited the infobox to reflect the lead - for at least the time being. I think it is fairly safe to assert that the war began over the course of April.

If we are to state an explicit date, this should be from a consensus of good quality reliable sources that would explicitly state the war began on X day [or a close paraphrase]. Do such sources exist and is there a consensus in these sources? Until this can be established, we should not attempt to be more specific. Cinderella157 (talk) 02:39, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

That's a good point and I agree that we don't need to pick one starting date of a conflict that escalated gradually. Alaexis_¿question? 05:29, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

"Ukraine's Unnamed War" p. 147 gives start date as
A week after the seizure of key government buildings by armed protesters in Donetsk and Luhansk on April 6, a fifty-man commando unit arrived to reinforce insurgents. They chose as their target Sloviansk, a small town three hours north of Donetsk. With the assistance of local militias who had raided weapons from state storage lockers, the commando unit cordoned off the city. In response, the interim Ukrainian president declared an “anti-terrorist operation” (Antyterorystychna operatsiia, hereafter ATO) and gave orders for the army to deploy. Within days, the first servicemen were killed. Heavy weapons entered the theater, initiating high-intensity fighting. Fighting never fully deescalated. Ukraine descended into war.

The military commando group that surfaced on Sloviansk on April 12 displayed no insignia and appeared to be a carbon copy of the Little Green Men in Crimea. ...

We then have Mitrokhin https://ibidem-verlag.de/pdf/07-mitrokhin.pdf
In this article, I divide the armed conflict in the Donbass region that began in spring 2014 into three distinct phases, each of which was characterized by the involvement of different actors and forces on the pro-Russian side. The first phase began in April 2014, when special forces (spetsnaz) troops and secret service officials supported criminals from the Donbass region and Russian nationalists who had traveled in from Russia with the aim of seizing power in several cities in the Donbass region, as part of a Russian special operation aimed at destabilizing Ukraine. ...

In the first phase, marked by the armed seizure of power in several cities in the region from 12-20 April 2014, the pro-Russian fighters comprised several different groups. ... Manyareasexpert (talk) 07:19, 10 July 2023 (UTC)

Well, there’s the two references you removed along with the start date.  —Michael Z. 03:06, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

But really, a specific start date for this aspect of the Russo-Ukrainian War isn’t that important, because the international conflict started in February 2014. A start date of the Donbas War is obviously after Russian combat forces invaded, so April 12 may be the earliest certain date. We know that Russian agents had been present before the actual war started, so their presence cannot be a determiner of the date.

I do question the inclusion of an end date, because there is no end yet. The assertion of an end date is immediately contradicted by the statement that this was subsumed by the ongoing war upon the Russian escalation of February 24, 2022.  —Michael Z. 03:12, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

I followed up on your suggestion re the end date. I cannot view the first of those sources. The second is quoted by Manyareasexpert (above) and I could view it. It labels the period 12-20 April as "armed uprising". It does not unambiguously call this the start of the war. Though one might infer a date from this, that goes to OR/SYNTH.Cinderella157 (talk) 10:08, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

I don't support this interpretation of Mitrokhin. The paper is labeled "Infiltration, Instruction, Invasion: Russia’s War in the Donbass". There he writes - "In this article, I divide the armed conflict in the Donbass region that began in spring 2014 into three distinct phases, each of which was characterized by the involvement of different actors and forces on the pro-Russian side." He names these phases Phase 1: “Armed Uprising” , Phase 2: Fanatics, Adventurers, Soldiers , Phase 3: Entry of the Army . Manyareasexpert (talk) 10:42, 11 July 2023 (UTC)

Galeotti (2019), Armies of Russia’s War in Ukraine, in the chapter “War in the Donbas,” 14–17 describes the beginning of the conflict, giving one specific date:

In the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, however, protesters stormed local government buildings and called for referenda on self-determination. Acting Ukrainian president Olexander Turchinov angrily threatened “counter-terrorism measures”; all that was needed now was a spark. / That spark was provided by 52 volunteers and mercenaries from Crimea commanded by an ardent Russian nationalist (and former intelligence officer) named Igor Girkin . . . On April 12, 2014 he led his force to seize local police and government buildings in the town of Slovyansk. An initial response by operators from the SBU, Ukraine’s security service, was driven off, and Kyiv began mustering more formidable forces. Meanwhile, as the rebels in Slovyansk managed to hold off successive government assaults, the rebellion spread. / The initial fighting involved not just Ukrainian government forces but also pro-government militias backed by a range of interests, from political movements to powerful businessmen. Arrayed against them was an equally varied mix of separatist militias, some made up of locals, others of mercenaries and volunteers from Russia – often with encouragement, weapons and guidance from Moscow. This was a messy, dirty conflict from the first, with both sides being credibly accused of human-rights abuses. While cities such as Mariupol and Svyatokhirsk [sic] were recaptured by the government, the tide seemed to be flowing against them.

 —Michael Z. 12:25, 12 July 2023 (UTC)

https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/ukraines-unnamed-war/ukraines-unnamed-war/4C1C0FB94FD3F899272BB1C5599D6916 The Donbas rebellion turned into an actual war, a military conflict, when a commando headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin, also known by his nom de guerre Strelkov, seized Sloviansk (Donetsk oblast) in April 2014. Manyareasexpert (talk) 22:37, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

Plokhy 2023, The Russo-Ukrainian War: 125–126. “He [Girkin] also began a shooting war in the Donbas by opening fire on Ukrainian security officers and killing one of them.” Footnoted to a WSJ article of April 26, 2014,[3] that I don’t have access to at the moment.  —Michael Z. 23:41, 22 September 2023 (UTC)

If someone is able to read the link WSJ article and find out whether it says on which date Girkin opened fire on Ukrainian security officers, that would be helpful.  —Michael Z. 23:19, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Pro-Russian Commander in Eastern Ukraine Sheds Light on Origin of Militants - WSJ (archive.ph) Manyareasexpert (talk) 23:31, 23 September 2023 (UTC)

Requested move 17 October 2023

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: page moved. Arbitrarily0 ^(talk) 14:58, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

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War in Donbas (2014–2022) → War in Donbas – The parenthetical disambiguation is not needed. It served to identify the subject in contrast to the former title of the sibling article Russian invasion of Ukraine when it was titled “Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present).” It also distinguishes the subject from the other ones listed in Battle of Donbas (disambiguation), but there is no real title conflict here: those are all battles and operations, and none is a war or theatre of war as this one is characterized. What the years in the title do is identify the scope of the article, but are also easily misconstrued as the duration of an international conflict between Russia and Ukraine ending in 2022; but that has not ended: it only changed character and so we started a separated article for the new phase Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present) of the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present).  —Michael Z. 13:34, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

• Support On the basis of WP:TITLEDAB. Such precision/disambiguation should only be used where there is an actual conflict in article titles. No such conflict exists. Cinderella157 (talk) 00:16, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
• Support Per nom. Rsk6400 (talk) 06:11, 18 October 2023 (UTC)
• Oppose a discussion on this article's scope is necessary. Super Dromaeosaurus (talk) 19:44, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

  Why? The name change needn’t affect the scope. If needed, the lead can be edited to explicitly make it clear as it stands.  —Michael Z. 21:37, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Support per nom and Cinderella. HappyWith (talk) 23:54, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

Imo Battle of Donbas (2022) should be merged here. Beshogur (talk) 20:04, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

That should be discussed in a separate discussion, though I really do not think it would receive any support. HappyWith (talk) 20:51, 20 October 2023 (UTC)

• Support. It is the primary topic and disambiguation in the title is unnecessary. Rreagan007 (talk) 04:29, 24 October 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

End date

If the war was subsumed, then it did not end. This article is about a period or phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War ending in February 2022, but that doesn’t mean we should arbitrarily say that the war ended and that it had a fixed duration. The end date should probably be removed, because there is no source cited that gives this as the date the war in Donbas ended.  —Michael Z. 13:19, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

In the title “War in Donbas (2014–2022)” the years refer to the scope of the article to help identify its subject. They work in contrast to the former article title of the following phase which was “Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022–present).” They continue to serve as disambiguation in reference to other subjects listed at Battle of Donbas. The years are not a part of the article text that gives the duration of a war bracketed by periods of peace.  —Michael Z. 13:26, 17 October 2023 (UTC)

Fighting in Donbas has changed substantially. In 2014 it was mostly separatist proxies fighting an insurgency with a lot of territory changing hands. As years passed the separatist proxies organized and received increased support from Russia, it became a slower and more attritional war, however fighting was not as intense so it makes sense to fit it into the initial insurgency's article. But with the new Russian invasion we went into a full-scale war between two professional armies with battles bloodier than anything we've seen here since 1945.

We can also argue political objectives were different. In 2014 Russia likely tried to make Donetsk and Luhansk highly autonomous provinces with veto powers within Ukraine to keep it from approaching the West, like it attempted with Moldova and probably Georgia. In 2022 the objective was simply conquest and expansionism.

They're different engagements and we can only group them together through time. If we adopt this interpretation we will have for some reason an article on the 2022-2023 phase but not one on the 2014-2022 which we can further divide. Furthermore there's barely any information here of what happened after 24 February 2022. This should become an enlarged discussion, likely a RfC on the article's scope, instead of being resolved through an unilateral decision. Super Dromaeosaurus (talk) 19:42, 18 October 2023 (UTC)

To be clear, I’m only suggesting removing the date from the infobox. No other change. The article does not say the war ended in February 2022, so a specific “end date” should not be presented as if it were a “key fact” in the infobox.  —Michael Z. 00:05, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

I agree, should be ongoing. Otherwise "status" tag is inappropriate. Beshogur (talk) 20:03, 19 October 2023 (UTC)

The subject of this article is a specific phase of the overall Russo-Ukrainian war, the War in Donbas, and previous editor consensus was that the specific phase ended with the start of the next phase, the invasion of Ukraine. To change the date would require a new consensus. Thus, pinging some of other editors who have been involved in previous discussions and actively edited the article, sorry if I missed someone, so they can express their opinions. @HappyWithWhatYouHaveToBeHappyWith, Cinderella157, Alaexis, and RGloucester: EkoGraf (talk) 22:25, 9 December 2023 (UTC)

• The scope of the article is up to 24 February 2022, when it was subsumed by the Russian invasion, though this does not preclude a brief summary of what immediately followed for continuity. Per MOS:MIL, the result parameter is quite specific in what may be placed there. Being subsumed into a greater conflict is inconsistent with the result parameter but quite consistent with the status parameter when there is not a final result. An end date of 24 February 2022 is an end for defining the scope of the article. It doesn't mean that some referee walked out into no mans land and blew time. However, it is a date when the nature of the conflict transformed into something else. I don't think that readers are being misinformed by having an end date in the infobox. Some of the argument over this, including tagging of the end date as dubious is IMO petty pedantic. It probably also reflects that an infobox cannot readily capture such nuance and is not really the place for nuance. The date parameter is actually optional and being somewhat Solomonic, we could choose to omit it from the infobox, leaving it for the lead to report. Note also, that for a war, we should probably report the year rather than a specific day. Another solution is to omit the end date from the date parameter and place a date against the invasion in the status parameter per this example. Cinderella157 (talk) 00:50, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

Agreed. I thought it was obvious that the "War in Donbas" ended with the beginning of the full-scale invasion. I think the #1 priority here is that we do not confuse readers into thinking the war in Donbas as we define it is still ongoing. I don't have a particular preference as to how exactly we represent this in the infobox. I don't really see the problem with the "subsumed" result parameter - seems like an WP:IGNOREALLRULES situation to me, since this is an odd case that the makers of the documentation for the template probably did not consider. I think leaving out an end date is an unnecessarily bureaucratic and confusing choice, and hinders communication of the actual important facts. HappyWith (talk) 04:08, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

Well, not obvious at all. According to the first line of the article there has been a war (lowercase w) in the Donbas region, but there is no formally titled War in the Donbas with some kind of official end date on the signing of any armistice, pullout of invasion forces, or anything else. “As we define it” is not a thing either; it’s just what we’ve written this article about, in summary style as child article of the broader Russo-Ukrainian War article. I thought it was obvious that war has continued and escalated greatly in the Donbas, not ended, and this is an actual important fact that should be communicated, not contradicted. I only see reasons to follow that rule.  —Michael Z. 16:30, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

My main point is that while there may be an end date for the scope of this article, as we define it, but that is not a key fact about the subject, and so should not appear in the infobox.  —Michael Z. 16:37, 10 December 2023 (UTC)

While you are discussing other matters, @Baba Mica quietly sneaked false start date [4] regardless to this discussion Talk:War in Donbas#Is there a consensus in reliable sources stating when this war started? and regardless to what sources say. Manyareasexpert (talk) 17:05, 10 December 2023 (UTC)