From the end of February 2014, demonstrations by pro-Russian and anti-government groups took place in major cities across the
eastern and
southern regions of
Ukraine, in the
aftermath of the
Euromaidan movement and the
2014 Ukrainian revolution. During the first stage of the unrest,
Crimea was
annexed by the
Russian Federation after a
crisis in the region,
Russian military intervention, and an internationally criticized
referendum. Protests in
Donetsk and
Luhansk oblasts escalated into an
armed separatist insurgency. This led the Ukrainian government to launch a military counter-offensive against the insurgents, which resulted in the ongoing
War in Donbass. From late 2014, cities outside of the Donbass combat zone, such as
Kharkiv,
Odessa,
Kiev and
Mariupol, were struck by bombings that targeted pro-Ukrainian unity organizations.