Eastern Ukraine

The region stretches from southern areas of the Central Russian Upland to the northern shores of the Sea of Azov, from the eastern border with Russia to Black Sea and Dnieper Lowlands (including the left bank of the Dnipro) to the west.

Among the major cities with population of over 200,000 people are Kharkiv, Dnipro, Donetsk-Makiivka, Zaporizhzhia, Mariupol, Luhansk, Horlivka and Kamianske.

Donetsk and Makiivka create urban sprawl, with very close proximity to other important cities such as Horlivka and Yenakieve.

The most common language in urban areas of the Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts is Russian, having long dominated in government and the media.

[7] Within weeks, Russian was declared as a regional language in several southern and eastern oblasts and cities.

[16][17] A 2007 survey by the Razumkov Centre asked "Would you like to have your region separated from Ukraine and joined another state?"

[21] But following the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution the Party of Regions collapsed[22] and the CPU was banned and declared illegal.

[25][26] The war in Donbas resulted in thousands of deaths and over a million people leaving their homes.

A November 2015 poll carried out by Rating Group Ukraine in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, except in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR)-controlled areas, found that 75% of residents wanted the entire Donbas region to stay in Ukraine, 7% said that it should join Russia, 1% wanted it to become an independent country, and 3% said that the DPR and the LPR-controlled territories should leave and the rest of Donbas remain in Ukraine.