Kiev’s crimes against the Donbas By Vladislav Ugolny The Ukrainian regime has long treated the people of the Donbas as sub-humans. The military conflict in Ukraine that began on 24th February was preceded by a much older conflict. Over the course of eight years, it claimed the lives of at least 14,200 people, over 37,000 were wounded, hundreds of thousands became refugees or had their homes destroyed. A de-escalation was achieved in February 2015, as both sides realised that a bad peace was better than a good war and attempted to find a political resolution on the basis of the Minsk agreements. That, however, failed to bring peace to Donbas, which instead faced eight long years of economic and legal blockade, compounded by chaotic shelling of areas near the front-lines. They were eight hard years, which involved rebuilding bombed schools, hospitals and houses, a rather humiliating dependence of formerly well-to-do people on humanitarian aid, an economic slump due to the economic