page_title: Donbass
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Donbass / Economy
context_page_description: The Donbass or Donbas is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine and southwestern Russia. The word Donbass is a portmanteau formed from Donets Basin, in reference to the river Donets that flows through it. Multiple definitions of the region's extent exist, and its boundaries have never been officially demarcated.
  The most common definition in use today refers to the Donetsk and Luhansk regions 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 the Don Cossack Host. It has been an important coal mining area since the late 19th century, when it became a heavily industrialised territory.
  In March 2014, following the Euromaidan and 2014 Ukrainian revolution, large swaths of the Donbass became gripped by unrest.
context_section_description: Donbass is dominated by heavy industry, such as coal mining and metallurgy. The region takes its name from an abbreviation of the term "Donets Coal Basin" (Ukrainian: Донецький вугільний басейн, Russian: Донецкий угольный бассейн), and while annual extraction of coal has decreased since the 1970s, Donbass remains significant supplier. Donbass represents one of the largest coal reserves in Ukraine having estimated reserves of 60 billion tonnes of coal. Coal mining in Donbass is conducted at very deep depths. Lignite mining takes place at around 600 metres (2,000 ft) below the surface, whilst mining for more valuable anthracite and bituminous coal takes place at depths of around 1,800 metres (5,900 ft). Prior to the start of the region's war in April 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts together produced about 30 percent of Ukraine's exports. Other industries in Donetsk which may overlap Donbass include blast-furnace and steel-making equipment, railway freight cars, metal-cutting machine-tools, tunneling machines, agricultural harvesters and ploughing systems, railway tracks, mining cars, electric locomotives, military vehicles, tractors and excavators. The region also produces consumer goods like household washing-machines, refrigerators, freezers, TV sets, leather footwear, and toilet soap. Over half its production is exported, and about 22% is exported to Russia.
  In mid-March 2017, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on a temporary ban on the movement of goods to and from territory controlled by the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic meaning that since then Ukraine does not buy coal from the Donets Coal Basin.
caption: Poor Collecting Coal by Nikolay Kasatkin: Donbass, 1894
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