u/Creeemi - originally from r/GenZhou
Also why are there two republics and not one? And was/is there really genocide in Donbas? I know about the 2014 fascist led coup by NATO aligned neo nazis and all that, but I dont really understand about the situatoin in east Ukraine, except that they are mostly russian speaking and have pro russian sentiments (which the west ukrainians dont like).
Edit: Also what exactly is Minsk II, why do people say its dead and who broke it and why?
u/eisagi - originally from r/GenZhou
Background. Ukraine was split ~50-50 between pro-Western and pro-Russian parties.
2004 Presidential election. Pro-Russian Yanukovych wins a close vote. Pro-Western Yuschenko alleges fraud, stages massive demonstrations with American money and training. As compromise, the election is run again and now Yuschenko wins a close vote.
2010 Presidential election. Yuschenko runs the least popular Ukrainian government ever, picks fights with all his allies, tanks the economy, gets 5% in his re-election bid. Yanukovych is elected - again in a close vote, but the election is deemed by Western observers to be the most free and fair the country has ever had.
2014 Coup. Pro-Western parties overthrow Yanukovych by force. His party, which was the largest in parliament and was organized around protecting the interests of the Ukrainian East and South, basically gets harassed into nothing, with members being arrested, assassinated, or intimidated. Demonstrations against the Coup are broken up by force, most famously in Odessa where the demonstrators were herded into the Trade Union building, which was then set on fire, with people jumping out the windows getting shot at and beaten.
So for Crimea and the Donbass - every time they organized politically and won a vote, the results got thrown out. Demonstrators in the Donbass started occupying government buildings. Ukraine sent in soldiers. War began.