The Russian Spring was a period of pro-Russian unrest which swept across eastern and southern Ukraine in the aftermath of the Euromaidan revolution in Kyiv in February 2014. Pro-Russian unrest in Crimea enabled the Russian military to occupy and annex the peninsula in March 2014, while protests in Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast led to the proclamation of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic. The Ukrainian military responded with an "anti-terrorist operation" in eastern Ukraine which escalated into the Donbass War.
History[]
In November 2013, following the pro-Russian President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych's announcement that an association agreement with the European Union would be paused, massive protests broke out in the capital, Kyiv, initially calling for integration with Europe. However, as the government employed brutal tactics to suppress the protests, the protest movement evolved into a revolutionary movement calling for the resignation of Yanukovych and the overthrow of his pro-Russian and notoriously corrupt Party of Regions government. On 27 January 2014, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and Ternopil Oblast, located in western Ukraine, banned the Party of Regions and the Communist Party of Ukraine; on 21 February, the Lviv Oblast town of Drohobych banned the two parties and additionally banned portraits of President Yanukovych. On 23 February 2014, Yanukovych fled the country as the protests in Euromaidan escalated into all-out warfare, with around 100 protesters being killed in street battles with armed riot police and hired pro-government thugs.
The "Revolution of Dignity" led to the establishment of a temporary government headed by the national conservative President Oleksandr Turchynov and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk. This government, like the Yanukovych government, proved to be incredibly polarizing. Yanukovych and his Party of Regions enjoyed widespread support among Russophone and ex-communist voters in eastern and southern Ukraine, while the Euromaidan movement was supported mostly by inhabitants of Western Ukraine, a region with closer ties to the rest of Europe, and a hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism and anti-communism. Russophones grew concerned that the Ukrainian nationalist government would crack down on their language rights and pursue policies of Ukrainization, while ethnic Russians were concerned about the government's move away from the Russian orbit and towards the European Union and NATO.
Even before the Euromaidan revolution had succeeded in ousting Yanukovych's government, a pro-Russian, "Anti-Maidan" movement emerged in eastern and southern Ukraine. An 8-14 February 2014 poll showed that 41% of respondents in Crimea, 33.2% in Donetsk Oblast, 24.1% in Luhansk Oblast, 24% in Odessa Oblast, 16.7% in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 15.1% in Kharkiv Oblast, and 13.8% in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast supported union with Russia. In late February, pro-Russian separatists in Crimea began a series of protests calling for union with Russia, and, on 27 February, Russian Army special forces seized the Supreme Council of Crimea. By 2 March 2014, all of Ukraine's military bases in Crimea had been taken over by unmarked Russian soldiers, and, on 17 March, the Supreme Council declared the independence of the Republic of Crimea, which was admitted into Russia on 21 March after a rigged annexation referendum.
On 1 March, several regional state administration buildings in eastern Ukrainian oblasts were taken over by pro-Russian protesters. 1,500 pro-Russian activists in Donetsk took over the RSA building from 1 to 6 March, when they were evicted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). On 13 March, supporters and opponents of the Euromaidan engaged in violent clashes in Donetsk, and, on 6 April, 1,000 pro-Russian activists called for a referendum on independence. The banned Donetsk Republic Party announced that a referendum on Donetsk Oblast's union with Russia would take place no later than 11 May 2014, leading to President Turchynov ordering an "anti-terrorism operation" against the separatists in Donetsk. Turchynov offered amnesty to the separatists if they would lay down their arms and surrender, and he also offered to potentially devolve power to the regions and protect the Russian language in law.
At the same time, pro-Russian unrest also occurred in neighboring Luhansk Oblast, where the proposed cancellation of the regional language law led to the regional administration demanding that the Russian language be given official status. The administration also called for the stopping of the prosecution of former Berkut officers, the disarming of Maidan self-defense units, and the banning of far-right organizations like Svoboda and UNA-UNSO; they also reserved the "right to ask for help from the brotherly people of the Russian Federation". Anti-Maidan demonstrators briefly occupied their RSA building on 9 March, and the local SBU headquarters was occupied on 6 April, along with the SBU's armory of over 300 machine-guns. On 8 April, pro-Russian activists discussed plans for a parliamentary republic in Luhansk, and 1,500 of them organized themselves into the Army of the South-East, among whom were former Berkut special police members.
On 12 April, a group of masked Russian gunmen led by former Russian intelligence agent Igor Girkin captured the executive committee building in Donetsk, and police stations and other government buildings were seized in Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka, Horlivka, Mariupol, and Yenakiieve, leading to President Turchynov ordering an "anti-terror" operation to recapture the seized buildings. By 16 April, it was estimated that 450 Russian special forces operatives were active in Donetsk Oblast. On 21 April, pro-Russian protesters in Luhansk rallied outside the SBU building to elect a "people's government", calling for a referendum on 11 May. Meanwhile, separatists in Donetsk seized Ukrainian military vehicles in Kramatorsk and were besieged in Sloviansk. On 24 April, as the Ukrainian military launched probing attacks on Sloviansk, the self-proclaimed separatist mayor Vyacheslav Ponomarev threatened to "make Stalingrad out of this town". On 11 May, concurrent referenda were held in Donetsk and Luhansk, in which 89% of voters in Donetsk and 96.2% of voters in Luhansk voted in favor of self-rule. This led to the establishment of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, and clashes with the Ukrainian military escalated. On 22 May, the "People's Governor" of Donetsk Pavel Gubarev proclaimed the confederal state of Novorossiya, and pro-Russian activists organized themselves into militia units such as the Vostok Battalion; they were supported by Chechen paramilitaries and Russian "volunteers".
Outside of annexed Crimea and the seceded Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, protests also occurred in Kharkiv. On 1 March 2014, pro-Russian activists stormed the RSA building, assaulted the Euromaidan activists who had been occupying it, and raised the Russian flag over the building. Police regained the building that evening and replaced the Russian flag with the flag of Ukraine, and continued, yet calmer protests occurred into April. On 3 March, 500 demonstrators failed to seize the RSA building in Odessa and hold a referendum on the creation of an "Odessa Autonomous Republic", and an Odessa People's Republic was proclaimed on the internet on 16 April 2014. However, the situation soon calmed, apart from a grenade attack on a Maidan self-defense checkpoint on 25 April which wounded seven people. That same month, the SBU prevented the creation of a Bessarabian People’s Republic led by MP Vitaly Barvynenko.