Russians are the ones native to the Donbass region, which was added to Ukraine only a century ago. The fact that the Russian Federation exists does not mean that ethnic Russians aren’t indigenous to the Donbass region, and as such deserve special protections, and certainly not the ethnic cleansing they are subject to.
Indigenous peoples are generally understood as populations that pre-date modern states and empires in a territory, with continuous cultural, linguistic, and social presence prior to colonization.
ie. not indigenous. However, as a recognised minority, russian speakers are afforded protections, along with other minorities.
Before 2014, and before the russian military sent troops and equipment to back separatist proxies, there wasn’t a war in Donbas. The loudest culture war arguments between russian and Ukrainian identity mostly played out among politicians and oligarchs who found them useful. For ordinary people in Donetsk and Luhansk, 2013 looked pretty normal: work, school, family life, sports. Life wasn’t affluent, but it was peaceful.
What changed everything was Russia’s direct military involvement in 2014. By supplying weapons, fighters, and command support, on the basis of exaggerated or outright false claims about threats to Russian speakers, it turned what had been political tension and limited unrest into a real war. Russia’s intervention, not everyday life in Donbas, is what destroyed the stability people had.
Yanukovych was not overthrown by force. His authority collapsed after the use of lethal force against protesters, which resulted in more than 100 deaths and triggered mass defections from the Interior Ministry, individual police units, and regional administrations. After losing effective control of the security apparatus, Yanukovych left Kyiv and then Ukraine, ceased exercising presidential powers, and failed to fulfill his constitutional duties. Ukraine’s Parliament, including a large number of members from his own party of Regions, then declared him unable to govern and scheduled early elections. This reflects abandonment of office followed by parliamentary succession, not a coup.
As for Donbas, its earlier inclusion in the Russian Empire is irrelevant under modern international law. Donbas became part of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s for political and economic reasons, remained within the Ukrainian SSR for nearly seventy years and was recognized as part of independent Ukraine by all parties (including Russia) in 1991. Borders established at independence were legally binding and internationally guaranteed.
Before Russia’s intervention in 2014, there was no armed conflict in Donbas and no evidence of genocide. Civilian life was normal by any reasonable standard: functioning schools, elections, media, and commerce. Claims of genocide appeared only after the conflict began and originate almost entirely from wartime propaganda sources. The simplest and most verifiable fact remains that the region was peaceful before Russian military involvement.
Russia initiated a war on false premises and later expanded it into a full scale invasion, resulting in hundreds of thousands of casualties and economic costs measured in hundreds of billions of dollars and euros / trillions of rubles. These outcomes stem from deliberate political choices, not historical necessity or defensive obligation.