[10][11] The Russian separatists have been held responsible for war crimes, among them the shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17[12] and the Mariupol rocket attacks, which they have denied.

[23] In 2023, Russia acknowledged separatists who fought in the Donbas war as being eligible to receive Russian combat veteran status.

[24] Although called "militias",[25] shortly before the 2022 Russian invasion, the separatist republics began forced conscription of men to fight for Russia.

[32] On the same day, groups of protesters in Eastern Ukraine stormed the regional administration building in Kharkiv, and the SBU headquarters in Luhansk.

[32][nb 2] On 12 April, armed members of the Donbas People's Militia seized government buildings in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk,[41] and set up checkpoints and barricades.

[45] On 13 April, the newly established Ukrainian government gave the separatists a deadline to disarm or face a "full-scale anti-terrorist campaign" in the region.

[47] On 14 April, members of the Donbas People's Militia blocked Ukrainian military KrAZ trucks armed with Grad missiles from entering the city.

[48][49] On 15 April, a full scale "Anti-Terrorist Operation" was launched by the Ukrainian government with aim of restoring their authority over the areas seized by the militia.

[59][60] On April 20, an unidentified armed group in civilian clothes attacked a militia checkpoint at the entrance to the city of Sloviansk.

On May 17, several members of the militia seized two BRDM unarmed armored vehicles from Severodonetsk and Lysychansk (Luhansk Oblast)[63] On May 22, the Federal State of Novorossiya was declared.

On May 23, several members of the people's militia seized another BRDM-RKh unarmed armored vehicle from Loskutovka (Luhansk Oblast)[64] In July 2014, the estimated manpower of the separatists was around 10,000–20,000.

[67] On August 8, the militia claimed that after battles near the Russian border, they had captured 67 pieces of equipment in varying conditions (serviceable equipment lacking ammunition or fuel, with faults, damaged in battle and completely unusable), including 18 "Grad" multiple rocket launching systems, 15 tanks and armored personnel carriers, howitzers, MANPADS, etc.

[85] Most of the Donbas conscripts are unexperienced, received little-to-no training and were badly equipped, and suffered from morale issues and heavy casualties.

[29] There were reports of conscipts being issued antiquated equipment such as World War I-era Mosin–Nagant rifles and the early Cold War-era T-62 tanks.

[30] The mass conscription has been considered a war crime by some, as the Article 51 of the Fourth Geneva Convention bans the forceful conscription of soldiers from occupied territory, but Russian authorities claimed they are part of the independent sovereign nations of the Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic.

[92] On February 19, the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Militias were formally integrated into the command structure of the Russian Armed Forces.

[97] On 28 December 2018 commander of the Ukrainian Navy Ihor Voronchenko claimed that the DPR had created a flotilla stationed at Novoazovsk, made up of about 25 converted fishing boats.

The Georgy Beregovoy Military-Physical Training Lyceum (Russian: Лицей с усиленной военно-физической подготовкой имени дважды Героя Советского Союза, летчика-космонавта СССР, генерал-лейтенанта Г.Т.Берегового) is an educational facility of the People's Militia, being akin to the Suvorov Military School or the Ivan Bohun Military High School.

[5] As the conflict intensified, the Donbas People's Militia was bolstered with many volunteers from the former Soviet Union, mainly Russia; including fighters from Chechnya and North Ossetia.

[4][197] The Donetsk People's Republic claimed on 16 August 2014 that it had received (together with 30 tanks and 120 other armoured vehicles of undisclosed origin) 1,200 "individuals who have gone through training over a four-month period on the territory of the Russian Federation".

[24] A 2016 report by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI) noted that Russian ethnic and imperialist nationalism has shaped the official ideology of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics.

[160] 'Rusich' is led by self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Alexey Milchakov and is part of the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company which has been linked to far-right extremism.

[10] These included Igor 'Strelkov' Girkin, first "minister of defence" of the Donetsk People's Republic, who espouses Russian neo-imperialism and ethno-nationalism.

In 2014, volunteers from the National Liberation Movement joined the Donetsk People's Militia bearing portraits of Tsar Nicholas II.

[10] An article in Dissent noted that "despite their neo-Stalinist paraphernalia, many of the Russian-speaking nationalists Russia supports in the Donbass are just as right-wing as their counterparts from the Azov Battalion".

[217][218] Swedish and Finnish far-right groups, such as the "Power Belongs to the People" party, reportedly recruited volunteers to fight for the separatists,[219][220] while members of the neo-Nazi "Nordic Resistance Movement" were seen attending paramilitary training in Russia.

Motivations for these fighters have included the belief that they are fighting America and Western interests and that Vladimir Putin is a bulwark for "traditional white European values" who they must support against the "decadent West".

[223] In April 2022, a video posted on Donetsk People's Republic's website showed Denis Pushilin awarding a medal to Lieutenant Roman Vorobyov (Somalia Battalion), who was wearing patches affiliated with neo-Nazism: the Totenkopf, used by the 3rd SS Panzer Division, and the valknut, a German neo-pagan simbol sometimes used by neo-nazis and white supremacists.

[10] Far-left volunteers have also fought for pro-Russian forces, echoing Russian claims of Ukraine being a "fascist state" and seeking to engage in an "anti-fascist struggle".

[238] In September 2015, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) published a report on the testimonies of victims held in places of illegal detention in Donbas.