The Gas Station

A prolonged crisis in Ukraine began on 21 November 2013 when then-president Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for the implementation of an association agreement with the European Union. The decision sparked mass protests from the proponents of the agreement. The protests, in turn, precipitated a revolution that led to Yanukovych's ousting. After the ousting, unrest enveloped in the largely Russophone eastern and southern regions of Ukraine, from where Yanukovych had drawn most of his support. Subsequently, an ensuing political crisis developed after Russia invaded said regions and annexed the then-autonomous Ukrainian region of Crimea. As Russia's invasion emboldened the Russophone Ukrainians already in upheaval, the unrest in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts devolved into a subnational war against the post-revolutionary Ukrainian government. Then, as that conflict progressed, the Russophone Ukrainian opposition turned into a pro-Russian insurgency often supported and assisted by the Russian military and its special forces.
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