Leading expert Mark Galeotti explores the undeclared war in the Donbas in 2014, illuminating the long-running Russia-Ukraine crisis.

The emerging and undeclared struggle for Ukraine's south-eastern Donbas region that erupted after the Russian annexation of Crimea was at once an insurgency, a proxy war and a direct Russian intervention. At first, it was a struggle largely between local insurgents and Russian volunteers on the one side, and local security forces and pro-government militias on the other. Over time, Ukrainian government forces assumed a growing role – and so too did Russian regulars. Over the next year, back-and-forth struggles continued as neither side was able to assert themselves until the conflict settled into an uneasy, bad-tempered and ultimately unstable stalemate.

Expert historian Mark Galeotti explores the war in the Donbas in 2014–15, detailing the eclectic mix of combatants and the mix of set-piece battles, scrappy insurgency and plain street brawls. With new artwork, detailed maps and diagrams, this book dives into the causes of the conflict, which only effectively froze in mid-2015 with the Minsk II peace deal, and shows how this played a role in the 2022 invasion.