Daily Life In The Donbas Region Of Ukraine

DONETSK REGION, UKRAINE - FEBRUARY 12: A demining team from the State Emergency Service of Ukraine is clearing a large forest contaminated with landmines, booby traps, and unexploded ordnance in the Lyman Raion of Donetsk Oblast on February 12, 2025 in Donetsk Region, Ukraine. The forest, located within the Yuzivska Shale Gas Field, was heavily bombed both during its occupation by Russian forces and its subsequent liberation by Ukrainian forces following the large-scale Russian offensive of 2022. In 2013, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Royal Dutch Shell signed an agreement with Ukraine to explore the Yuzivska shale gas deposit, which holds an estimated 1.2 trillion cubic meters of reserves making it the third-largest in Europe. The Donbas War began in April 2014 after a coup by Russia-backed mercenaries in the city of Donetsk and Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. The confrontation between an expansionist Russia and Ukraine aspiring to consolidate its independence has laid waste to the Donbas and Russification has been brutally imposed on the six million mostly Russian-speaking inhabitants. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)