Ukraine’s southeastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk have been severely affected by Kiev’s special military operation, launched in April 2014. The operation was a response to local residents' refusal to recognize the new coup-installed government in the country.
In February 2015, a peace agreement was signed between Ukraine’s conflicting sides in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, after talks of the Normandy Four countries, comprising Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany.
The deal stipulates a full ceasefire, weapons withdrawal from the line of contact in eastern Ukraine, an all-for-all prisoner exchange and constitutional reforms, which would give a special status to the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics. Both sides of the conflict, however, are constantly accusing each other of violations of the agreement.
