Conflict in Donbas: Evolution and Consequences

This chapter focuses on the military conflict in the Donbas area of Ukraine over the period from February 2014 to April 2019 that spans from the beginning of the conflict to the end of the Presidency of Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s post-Euromaidan president. By process-tracing the conflict, it brings to light its hybrid nature and argues that the conflict is a result of destabilization tactics, military and political, and of failed diplomatic attempts by state and non-state actors on both sides. In other words, neither the nature nor the territory of the conflict had been preordained at its start and its cur- rent shape does not reflect pre-existing societal or identity cleavages.