The reality on the line of contact of forces in Donbas is frightening, the provocations of the Ukrainian military are not single, but multiple. Russia, not being a party to the conflict, cannot ensure a comprehensive ceasefire in Donbas, but uses its influence to implement agreements. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict and is interested in Kyiv overcoming the political and economic crisis.
Summary
It is incorrect to characterise the Donbas war as a conflict between Ukraine and Russia. What is happening in Eastern Ukraine is an internal conflict.
Disproof
Recurrent negation of the role of Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
The war in Ukraine is not a civil conflict but a well-documented act of aggression by Russian armed forces, ongoing since February 2014.
There is irrefutable evidence of direct Russian military involvement in Ukraine. The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stated that “the information available suggests that the situation within the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol amounts to an international armed conflict between Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This international armed conflict began at the latest on 26 February 2014 when the Russian Federation deployed members of its armed forces to gain control over parts of the Ukrainian territory without the consent of the Ukrainian Government."
The European Union stated in July 2014 that "arms and fighters continue flowing into Ukraine from the Russian Federation".
According to the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) Russian special forces and troops operated to mobilise, lead, equip, and support separatist militias in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine from spring 2014 to the present, although their presence was denied by Moscow. On top of that, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted Russia's military presence in Ukraine in 2015.
As for the annexation, no international body recognises the so-called referendum in Crimea. The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution entitled “Territorial integrity of Ukraine”, stating that the referendum in Crimea was not valid and could not serve as a basis for any change in the status of the peninsula. On 17 December 2018, the UN General Assembly confirmed its non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea.
The European Union does not recognise and continues to strongly condemn this violation of international law, which remains a challenge to the international security order.
Following the covert invasion of “little green men,” power in Crimea was vested in a makeshift executive headed by Sergey Aksenov. The new Crimean regime conducted the referendum hastily and at gunpoint, barred impartial observers from entering the peninsula, and instead invited dozens of fringe politicians and activists to “monitor” the procedure, most of them far-right Kremlin loyalists.
A year after the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that the plan to annex Crimea was ordered weeks before the so-called referendum.
Read also similar cases : The conflict in Ukraine is internal and has no relation to Russia , Russia is not a conflict party in Ukraine , There is a civil war in Ukraine , Russia is not a part of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.