一文速览俄罗斯与乌克兰边境问题
2月21日，俄罗斯总统普京签署命令，承认乌克兰东部顿巴斯地区民间武装自行成立的“顿涅茨克人民共和国”和“卢甘斯克人民共和国”。命令要求俄军在这两地担负保障和平的职责。2月23日，俄罗斯紧急情况部代理部长丘普里扬表示，截至当天早上6时，已有超过9.5万名来自乌克兰顿巴斯地区的民众疏散至俄罗斯境内。
2014年4月，乌克兰顿巴斯地区爆发政府军与民间武装的大规模武装冲突。当地民间武装随后宣布成立“顿涅茨克人民共和国”和“卢甘斯克人民共和国”。经国际斡旋，冲突双方分别于2014年9月和2015年2月在白俄罗斯首都明斯克达成停火协议。不过，此后小规模交火在这一地区仍时有发生。
去年底以来，俄罗斯与乌克兰紧张关系加剧。美国政府持续声称，俄罗斯即将“入侵”乌克兰。俄罗斯斥责美方说法，强调无意威胁或进攻他国。本月17日以来，顿巴斯地区局势升级，乌克兰政府与民间武装相互指责对方发动挑衅性炮击。
"The situation in Donbass has reached a critical, acute stage," this was the verdict of Vladimir Putin as he explained to the Russia people why he has signed a decree to recognize the independence of two regions in the east of Ukraine.
Luhansk and Donetsk are both situated in the Donbass region which is on the Russia-Ukraine border. The area is identified as the basin around the river Donets that flows through Ukraine into Russia before joining the Don river and emptying into the Azov Sea.
The current line of conflict which is located in the eastern third of Donbass but there have been conflicting messages from Russia on what the borders of the regions they recognize as independent from Kyiv are. One Putin spokesman, was quoted as saying "the borders in which they exist and in which they declared [independence]," define the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
But Leonid Kalashnikov, chair of the lower house of Russia's parliament said, "Right now, they have less territory than they did during the referendum, but they think their statehood spreads to that territory too. But the treaty doesn't account for how those borders will be restored," he added.
"In a few days, it'll all be clarified and decided."
CGTN采访从乌克兰顿巴斯地区撤离的民众↓↓↓
Donbass region explained
The name Donbass comes from an amalgamation of the Donets river and its basin and became a popular term during the industrial revolution to refer to the region which had grown in notoriety thanks to its rich coal resources.
Even today it is dominated by the coal and metal industries that populate the area, a sector that has had a major influence on the regions economy demographics and politics.
The Donbass region is home to giant steel smelters and heavy plants that produce up to a third of Ukraine's industrial output.
Under the Soviet Union a number of Russian speaking workers were sent to the area enhancing the links with Moscow but when Ukraine's parliament offered a referendum on independence in 1991, over 83 percent of the population in Donetsk and Luhansk (that form the Donbass region) voted for it.
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Since then, support for Kyiv has declined. In April 2014, pro-Russian separatist armed groups seized government buildings in Donbass, including in the Donetsk and Luhansk, and declared themselves to be independent republics.
Ukrainian forces resisted, but with Russian troop buildups reported along the border, they were wary of sparking a much wider war. The West imposed sanctions on Russia and eventually a ceasefire was agreed.
Conflict has dominated much of the last eight years in Donbass, with at least 14,000 people killed since 2014, according to the UN, roughly a quarter of them civilians, and has internally displaced an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainians.
Modern Donbass is a predominately Russian-speaking region. According to the most recent census available taken in 2001, 74.9 percent speak Russian as a first language in the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.