Ethnic Russians in Ukrainian Breakaway Regions Flee to Russia

Increased shelling in the Donbas region leads to evacuations of Russian citizens (Wikimedia Commons).

Local leaders in the breakaway regions of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic have urged residents to evacuate to Russia under the threat of Ukrainian attacks. The first buses carrying evacuees have already begun arriving in Russia.

In the past weeks, Russia has assembled nearly 150,000 troops along their Ukraine border, raising alarm from the international community about a possible invasion and its implications in Eastern Europe.  

The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) are part of the Donbas region of southeastern Ukraine. Both republics are majority Russian-speaking, and many of their residents identify as ethnically Russian, despite being located in Ukrainian territory. In recent years, Russia has issued passports to several hundred thousand residents in these breakaway regions.

Both the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) border the Rostov region of Russia, and current threats of escalation along the Ukraine-Russia border have created a growing influx of refugees. Vasiliy Golubev, the governor of the region, announced that approximately 1,700 people have arrived as of February 19. Officials from the DPR and LPR reported even higher numbers: 6,600 and nearly 10,000 refugees, respectively. 

President Putin has ordered the governments of southern Russia to accommodate civilians from DPR and LPR, prioritizing women, children, and the elderly. Russian state media has attributed local violence in the regions to the Ukrainian government, volunteering to protect civilians fleeing from “intense shelling from Kiev forces.”

A February 19 report from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Special Monitoring Mission for Ukraine documented 591 ceasefire violations in the DPR and 975 ceasefire violations in the LPR. Both numbers indicate an increase from the past reporting period, which saw 222 violations in Donetsk and 648 in Luhansk.

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that Kyiv forces are committing “genocide” in Donbas. Classifying the migrants as “refugees,” the government will award each evacuee a sum of 10,000 rubles ($130).

The U.S. government has condemned the highly-publicized accommodation of Donetsk and Luhansk civilians on the grounds that Russian claims of genocide misrepresent the Ukrainian military’s actions. A State Department spokesperson said, “It is …cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns to distract the world from the fact that Russia is building up its forces in preparation for an attack.”