This region of eastern Ukraine includes both the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk districts (the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics) and the area controlled by the Ukrainian Army. There is no physical demarcation. Before the war, Donbass was the most densely populated territory of Ukraine, apart from the capital city of Kiev.
The region sits on a rich vein of coal which built its economy and remains its economic base. The Minsk Agreements sustain a fragile and often fractured cease-fire. In the border area, as in western Ukraine, the de-communization includes removal of Lenin statues leaving his naked podium in city centers. Kiev continues to celebrate independence from Russia with memorials to the current conflict.

Larry Towell visited the Ukrainian side of the conflict in October 2017.

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