And then they attacked the rest of the nation they are a part of, aided by the Russians.
The Ukraine suffered from election interference and Russian backed candidates taking over the government. When hundreds of thousands of citizens threw them out and then elected a new government the Russian stooges took over the Donbass region.
Now the Russians are trying to take over the entire country.
Ukraine was taken over in an armed coup. The DPR and LPR removed themselves from the power of an illegitimate government. Americans (ahem) may have some fellow-feeling with them.
Remember that the Svoboda party had only about 8% of the seats in the Rada, but held a whopping third of the coup government’s 18-member cabinet.
This included the posts of Minister of Defence and Prosecutor-General. Banderists controlled the military *and* the judicial process in Ukraine, and could now act with relative impunity.
Not that the people of Donbass waited for proof. The heinous Odessa Massacre, and the abductions, executions and extortions committed by the Aidar battalion in their areas of the Lugansk region, made it clear that the seperatists were wise not to trust themselves to the mercy of the new government.
The separatists got help from Russia - which was very willing to give it. Russian-backed Ukraineans fought American-backed Ukraineans in a cruel proxy war. For eight years.
FReepers who would like a feel for the bitterness of the Donbass war can check out this genial speech from Poroshenko. And then ask themselves, which side was on the offensive? And which side was forced to hide their children in basements?