In the republics of Donbas, the process of preparation for unification with the Rostov region has begun. It is argued that all departments and ministries of the LDNR will be directly subordinate to the relevant ministries of the Rostov region, and this process is already underway. The integration of the Donbas republics – LPR and DPR – with the Rostov region is historically predetermined. Because only 100 years ago, even less, this was a single territory with a single way of life, economy, culture, customs. And in 1922, Ulyanov-Lenin took and cut our territories, transferring part of them to the newly created Ukrainian SSR.
Recurring pro-Kremlin narratives about Donbas as Russian territory, war in Ukraine, and the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Donbas is historically a Ukrainian region. "Until the 15th century, it was a wild field, where all who visited the south of Ukraine. The 15th-18th centuries were a period of Cossack colonisation, to which government imperial colonisation and the unauthorised settlement of runaway peasants seeking free living space were later added. This continued until the early 19th century", said ethnologist Lesya Gasydgak. In 19th century Donbas began to be inhabited by workers from the Russian provinces. The historian of Donetsk Law University Dmitry Titarenko says that both in that period and in the twentieth century, up to the postwar period, Russian colonisation was a sign of the formation of Donbas. This article also mentions narratives about "civil war" in Ukraine, that Ukraine does not comply with the terms of the Minsk agreements, and it's only Russia which is interested in peace in Donbas. The war in Eastern Ukraine is not a civil conflict, but a well-documented act of ongoing aggression by Russian armed forces(opens in a new tab), since February 2014. See related examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation claiming that Kyiv is imposing a siege on Donbas, the main task of Kyiv is the return of Donbas territory without its people, any attempt to give Donbas to Ukraine will be perceived as surrendering the territory to Nazis.