War in Donbass

The War in Donbass (also called the War in Ukraine, War in Eastern Ukraine) is an armed conflict in the Donbass region of Ukraine. From the beginning of March 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, together commonly called the "Donbass", in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement. These demonstrations, which followed the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, and which were part of a wider group of concurrent pro-Russian protests across southern and eastern Ukraine, escalated into an armed conflict between the separatist forces of the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR respectively), and the Ukrainian government. Prior to a change of the top leadership in August, the separatists were largely led by Russian citizens. During the middle of 2014, Russian paramilitaries were reported to make up between 15% and 80% of the combatants.

War

War is a state of armed conflict between societies. It is generally characterized by extreme collective aggression, destruction, and usually high mortality. The set of techniques and actions used to conduct war is known as warfare. An absence of war is usually called "peace". Total war is warfare that is not restricted to purely legitimate military targets, and can result in massive civilian or other non-combatant casualties.

While some scholars see war as a universal and ancestral aspect of human nature, others argue that it is only a result of specific socio-cultural or ecological circumstances.

In 2013 war resulted in 31,000 deaths down from 72,000 deaths in 1990. The deadliest war in history, in terms of the cumulative number of deaths since its start, is the Second World War, from 1939 to 1945, with 60–85 million deaths, followed by the Mongol conquests which was greater than 41 million. Proportionally speaking, the most destructive war in modern history is the War of the Triple Alliance, which took the lives of over 60% of Paraguay's population, according to Steven Pinker. In 2003, Richard Smalley identified war as the sixth (of ten) biggest problem facing humanity for the next fifty years. War usually results in significant deterioration of infrastructure and the ecosystem, a decrease in social spending, famine, large-scale emigration from the war zone, and often the mistreatment of prisoners of war or civilians. Another byproduct of some wars is the prevalence of propaganda by some or all parties in the conflict, and increased revenues by weapons manufacturers.

Donbass

The Donbass (Russian: Донба́сс) or Donbas (Ukrainian: Донбас) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The word "Donbass" is a portmanteau formed from Donets Basin (Ukrainian: Донецький басейн, translit. Donetskyi basein; Russian: Донецкий бассейн, Donetskiy bassein), which refers to the river Donets that flows through it. Multiple definitions of the region's extent exist, but its boundaries have never been officially demarcated. The most common definition in use today refers to the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of Ukraine, whilst the historical coal mining region excluded parts of these oblasts, and included areas in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and Southern Russia. A Euroregion of the same name is composed of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in Ukraine and Rostov Oblast in Russia. Donbass formed the historical border between the Zaporizhian Sich and Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.

Ukraine

Ukraine (ⁱ/juːˈkreɪn/; Ukrainian: Україна, tr. Ukraina [ukrɑˈjinɑ]) is a country in Eastern Europe,bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Belarus to the northwest, Poland and Slovakia to the west, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova to the southwest, and the Black Sea and Sea of Azov to the south and southeast, respectively. It is currently in dispute with Russia over the Crimean peninsula which Russia annexed in 2014 but Ukraine and most of the international community still recognise as Ukrainian. Including Crimea, Ukraine has an area of 603,628 km² (233,062 sq mi), making it the largest country entirely within Europe and the 46th largest country in the world, and a population of about 44.5 million, making it the 32nd most populous country in the world.

The territory of modern Ukraine has been inhabited since 32,000 BC. During the Middle Ages, the area was a key centre of East Slavic culture, with the powerful state of Kievan Rus' forming the basis of Ukrainian identity. Following its fragmentation in the 13th century, the territory was contested, ruled and divided by a variety of powers, including Lithuania, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. A Cossack republic emerged and prospered during the 17th and 18th centuries, but its territory was eventually split between Poland and the Russian Empire, and later submerged fully into Russia. Two brief periods of independence occurred during the 20th century, once near the end of World War I and another during World War II, but both occasions would ultimately see Ukraine's territories conquered and consolidated into a Soviet republic, a situation that persisted until 1991, when Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union in the aftermath of its dissolution at the end of the Cold War.

List of wars involving Ukraine

The following is an incomplete list of major wars fought by Ukraine, by Ukrainian people or regular armies during periods when independent Ukrainian states existed, from antiquity to the present day. It also includes wars fought outside of Ukraine by Ukrainian military.

The separate section contains list of wars involving Crimean Tatars' states.

The list gives the name, the date, combatants, and the result of these conflicts following this legend:

Kievan Rus

This section contains list of wars involving Kievan Rus' and its principalities located on the territory of modern Ukraine (Principality of Kyiv, Principality of Chernigov, Principality of Pereyaslavl, Principality of Volhynia, Principality of Terebovlia, Principality of Halych, Principality of Turov and Pinsk), Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and Ukrainian duchies under Polish and Lithuanian crowns (like Duchy of Kyiv).

Cossack Ukraine

This section contains list of wars involving Zaporozhian Cossacks (including Danubian Sich) and Cossack Hetmanate (both of righ-bank and left-bank).