Operation Liberation

‘They [Ukrainian army] are fascists; there’s nothing else to say. There is no Ukraine there... We weren’t the ones who came to them; they’ve come to us,’ a DNR militiaman, codename ‘Yakut’, told our camera crew in 2014.

After south-eastern Ukraine did not support the coup in Kiev, the new government started shelling civilians. According to the UN, more than 6,000 people died in the first year of the standoff.

Moreover, all the while, the Ukrainian military was preparing for an offensive in Donbass. By the end of 2021, a grouping of 150,000 people was concentrated on the region’s borders.

Russia could not allow further bloodshed and decided to support the Donbass. For a chronology of events, see the premiere of Operation Liberation.