Donbasification: How Russia Manufactured an Identity
What it is about
Who published it, and when
How it spread - 2 original reports
Mon, 31 August 2026
1 report- Kyiv Post (Ukraine)15:00first to report
In this 2-part series, Kate Turska traces how "Donbas," once a Soviet-era economic term for a coal and steel basin, was transformed into a supposed separate identity. Drawing on decades of forced Russification and the 1991 independence referendum, she shows how genuine regional differences were exaggerated into a fault line – one Russia would later exploit to justify its 2014 invasion.
Wed, 2 September 2026
1 report- Kyiv Post (Ukraine)16:33
In this second part of a 2-part series, Kate Turska turns to what Russia's mythology can't explain: Ukrainian poets, soldiers and civil resistance rooted in the very region Moscow claimed as its own. From Azov's leadership to the Yellow Ribbon movement under occupation, and Russia's ongoing efforts to indoctrinate children today, Turska argues that identity manufactured by an enemy can still fail to take hold.