Yet another prominent participant in the events of 2014 in eastern Ukraine has acknowledged that the ‘people’s uprising’ in the Donetsk oblast was nothing of the sort and that without Russian involvement, it would have remained a “usual, unarmed and toothless street protest”. For those in Donetsk, or following what was happening, Pavel Gubarev’’s admission is hardly a revelation. It is, nonetheless, worth noting, and not only, as Denis Kazansky points out, because of Russia’s constant narrative about a ‘civil war’ in Donbas. Gubarev’s ‘uprising’ closely followed the scenario, being pushed and financed by Sergei Glazyev, a senior adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and, without Russian machine guns and specially trained fighters, it failed.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: First Donetsk militant admits Russian aggression
(Archive photo) An armed pro-Russian separatist stands guard in the village of Spartak near the airport of Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, on April 10, 2015.
