Industrial Heritage and Identity Politics: Structural Roots of the Separatist Mobilizations in the Donbas
Journal: Journal of innovation and development
Year: 2025

The Donbas, which includes Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in eastern Ukraine, has been the epicenter of the battle between separatists, starting from 2014 to the full-scale invasion in 2022. This paper goes beyond such oversimplified geopolitical narratives, which exaggerate Russian interference, and explores both the structural conditionings and the historical foundations of such separatist tendencies. It explores the impact of differing patterns of Soviet-era industrialization, ethnic Russian dem