New Cold War.org, July 7, 2015
On July 5, 2014, the nascent self-defense forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic were obliged to withdraw under heavy fire from Slavyansk city after weeks of resisting Ukraine armed forces attacks. At the time, the city was the front line of resistance to the invasion of Donetsk and Lugansk regions by the Ukrainian army and its allied, extremist militias.
One year later, Ukrainian authorities staged a celebration of the “liberation” of the city. But as a video of the ceremony by Radio Liberty shows, only a few hundred people attended, Many of those were soldiers and militia members on duty.
Before Kyiv launched its civil war, the population of Slavyansk was some 125,000. Today, it is some tens of thousands. Tens of thousands of residents have left in order to avoid Kyiv’s ongoing war or because they don’t want to live in the new, intolerant, ‘monist’ Ukraine.
