Beyond Donbas
Year: 2025

Abstract This chapter examines the reasons for the failure of the separatist movement in two regional centers outside Donbas—Kharkiv and Odesa—in spring 2014. It examines Russia’s tactics and objectives in these regions and how they differed from those employed in Donbas and Crimea. It also analyzes the composition of local separatist groups and the dynamics of pro-Russian mobilization as well as the strength of the countermobilization in defense of Ukraine’s integrity organized by local activis