Lugansk: Road to Independence 2022-2014

directed: RT RU 2022 52m

In 2014, Lugansk didn’t recognise the new nationalist government after the Maidan coup, so the Ukrainian administration responded to protests with brute force. After the coup, the new Ukrainian authorities declared Russia an enemy and banned Russian culture and language. They started repressing all regions with Russian-speaking people. ‘The missile strike hit the centre of Lugansk. A total of 19 missiles were fired. I was there in the city administration building,’ Igor Kornet, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Lugansk People’s Republic, recalls the beginning of the Ukrainian attack on Donbass. At that moment, the people of Lugansk understood there would be no peaceful negotiations. So they formed a militia to resist the Ukrainian armed forces. That was the start of the Donbass war, which lasted eight years.

Today the Lugansk People’s Republic is recognised as an independent state by the Russian Federation. The special operation in Ukraine aims to defend the Donbass people from the rising aggression of the Ukrainian nationalists. Lugansk citizens say they will never forget the atrocities of the Ukrainian nationalists and never wish to be a part of Ukraine again.