Many states and international organisations reacted to the war in Donbas, a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War that took place from 2014 to 2022 in the Donbas historical region in eastern Ukraine.
General reactions
Supranational bodies European Union: The EU began imposing sanctions on Russia in March 2014, following the annexation of Crimea, with the lists of sanctioned individuals and entities having been expanded multiple times concurrently with escalations in Donbas. President of the European Council Donald Tusk stated that Russia was "[compensating] for its shortcomings by destructive, aggressive and bullying tactics against its neighbors." NATO: NATO published a statement on the war in Donbas and the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in August 2014. It attempted to debunk the Russian government's accusations against the Ukrainian government, and also other statements made by Russia to justify its presence in Ukraine. According to the statement, Russia attempted to "divert attention away from its actions" and "levelled a series of accusations against NATO which are based on misrepresentations of the facts". It also said that Russia "made baseless attacks on the legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities and has used force to seize part of Ukraine's territory". In response to the unauthorised entry of the Russian "humanitarian convoy" on 22 August, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen stated that this incident could "only deepen the crisis in the region, which Russia itself has created and has continued to fuel. The disregard of international humanitarian principles raises further questions about whether the true purpose of the aid convoy is to support civilians or to resupply armed separatists". NATO general Philip Breedlove said on 20 September that the ceasefire implemented as part of the Minsk Protocol was "a ceasefire in name only", and criticised Russia for allowing men and equipment to flow freely across its border into Donbas. OSCE: In July 2015, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly condemned Russia's "unilateral and unjustified assault on Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity." United Nations: A press release issued on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of "constructive and results-oriented dialogue between all concerned", and of adherence to the terms of the Geneva Statement on Ukraine. The statement also made clear that the situation "remains extremely volatile".
UN member and observer states Australia: In March 2014, Australia's foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop said that "International law does not allow one state to steal the territory of another on the basis of a referendum that cannot be considered free or fair", after disputing the legitimacy of the Crimean referendum which voted to secede from Ukraine. The opposition's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek also said "Australia has a special responsibility as a member of the security council to join the international community in taking strong action to make clear our condemnation of the moves by Russia to annex Crimea and of the fatal attack on the Ukrainian serviceman in Crimea" firmly reiterating Australia's condemnation of Russian intervention across both parties in Parliament. Belarus: Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko encouraged peace talks from the start of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and hosted the summits that produced the Minsk Protocol in September 2014 and Minsk II in February 2015. Canada: In November 2014, Canadian foreign minister John Baird stated that he thought that Russian president Vladimir Putin was waging "a murderous campaign in Ukraine", and that if this continued, President Putin would "go down in history as the man who destroyed all that was once positive in Russia-Ukraine ties – historical, religious, cultural, even fraternal bonds sacrificed to his ruthless expansionism in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk". In June 2015, Prime Minister Stephen Harper called for Putin "to end his invasion of Eastern Ukraine, to withdraw his soldiers, tanks and heavy weapons, and to cease providing military aid to insurgents." China: Premier Li Keqiang said in March 2015 that China "respects Ukraine's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity" and expressed hope for a peaceful resolution of the conflict. At the same time Russian business and financial institutions observed "ambiguous position regarding Russian banks in the wake of US and EU sanctions" from the Chinese financial institutions, meaning in practice reduced willingness of Chinese banks to finance trade and execute interbank transactions with their counterparts in Russia. Czech Republic: Czech president Miloš Zeman said on 5 September that the situation in Donbas could "develop into a Russian invasion, but at this stage, it is a civil war between two groups of Ukrainian inhabitants"."Zeman scared of Islamic expansion, not Russian invasion ". The Prague Post. 5 September 2014. His words were at odds with statements by Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Defence Minister Martin Stropnický, who both said there were at least 5,000 Russian troops in Ukraine. Prime Minister Sobotka also said: "I suppose that Europe should not harm itself by these sanctions. I consider the escalation of sanctions a very risky business.""Prague to comment on new EU sanctions – PM " ČeskéNoviny.cz. 2 September 2014. Estonia: In March 2014, Estonia's president Toomas Hendrik Ilves said: "Justification of a military invasion by a fabricated need to protect ethnic "compatriots" resuscitates the arguments used to annex Sudetenland in 1938." France: France was criticised at the time of the annexation of Crimea for continuing to prepare two Mistral class amphibious assault ships for delivery to Russia. The first one was meant to be delivered in October 2014. France eventually decided to place the delivery on hold in September, following increasing escalation in the Donbas, and reported Russian intervention there. Georgia: In April 2014, Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili said in an interview, "I don't think it's a right choice to alienate Russia, to cut relations with Russia. Because alienating Russia makes Russia even more aggressive, unpredictable and dangerous". He said that Russia should be made to understand "that relations between neighbours or countries around the world aren't built through military interventions". In March 2015, he followed up his earlier remarks, saying, "the occupation of Georgian territories in 2008, war in Ukraine in 2014 and support of separatists in Transnistria is nothing but...Georgia's, Ukraine's and Moldova's punishment by Moscow for their European choice". Germany: According to the German Foreign Office, Merkel said that the war was never a conflict "within Ukraine", but a confrontation between Russia and Ukraine. In November 2014, Merkel stated that "old thinking about spheres of influence, which runs roughshod over international law" put the "entire European peace order into question" and said that if Ukraine had chosen the Eurasian Economic Union, the West would not have responded by making 'noise' on the Ukrainian-Polish border. Kazakhstan: During a 22 December visit to Kyiv, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev stated "I am asking Russia and Ukraine to think about a compromise in order to end this conflict and preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine, because this situation is nonsense and it should not have happened". He also called the international economic sanctions against Russia "a road to an impasse and a path to nowhere".Nazarbayev urges Russia, Ukraine to reach compromise over Donbas , Interfax-Ukraine (22 December 2014) Lithuania: In September 2014, Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaitė said "I think that Russia is terrorising its neighbours and using terrorist methods", and that "It is a shame on all the Western leaders to allow an aggressor to do what he wants with a sovereign country in the 21st century". In November 2014, she stated that "We know that today Ukraine is fighting for peace in Europe, for all of us. If a terrorist state that is engaged in open aggression against its neighbor is not stopped, then that aggression might spread further into Europe". Poland: In April 2015, Polish president Bronisław Komorowski said, "Today, when the sons of Ukraine are dying in the east of their country in the defence of national independence, they are also defending Europe. They are defending it against the return of imperial thinking, against policies that pose a threat to the freedom of all Europeans". Romania: Romanian president Klaus Iohannis condemned attacks on the city of Mariupol, stating that the responsibility for these attacks did not fall only on the separatists, but also on the Russian Federation. He added that Romania condemned the violation of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty, and supported further sanctions against Russia. Russia: The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukrainian authorities of "blaming" the Russian government for all its troubles and stated "Ukrainian people want to get a clear answer from Kyiv to all their questions. It's time to listen to these legal claims".Russia trying to 'dismember' Ukraine through protests, Kiev says, CNN (7 April 2014) It also stated it was "carefully observing" events in the east and south of Ukraine, and again called for "real constitutional reform" that would turn Ukraine into a federation.Ukraine crisis escalates as pro-Russia activists declare independence in Donetsk , The Guardian (7 April 2014) In a 7 April opinion piece in The Guardian, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov wrote that it was Europe and the United States, and not Russia, that was guilty of destabilising Ukraine and that "Russia is doing all it can to promote early stabilisation in Ukraine".Sergei Lavrov: It's not Russia that is destabilising Ukraine , The Guardian (7 April 2014) The Russian Foreign Ministry issued a stern condemnation of the "criminal order" by Kyiv for armed aggression against Donetsk: "The Kiev authorities, who self-proclaimed themselves as a result of a coup, have embarked on the violent military suppression of the protests," demanding that "the Maidan henchmen, who overthrew the legitimate president, to immediately stop the war against their own people, to fulfill all the obligations under the Agreement of 21 February." Russian president Vladimir Putin compared the siege of the DPR and LPR-controlled cities of Donetsk and Luhansk to the Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War: "Sadly, it reminds me of World War II, when German fascist forces surrounded our cities, like Leningrad, and shelled population centres and their residents".Ukraine Retreats in Effort to Isolate Rebel Stronghold , The Daily Telegraph, 29 August 2014 On 4 September 2015 the Investigative Committee of Russia published an insulting letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine with threats of holding "Nuremberg-2 trials" against the government of Ukraine in addition to calling the Ukrainian language "retarded".Markin, V. Expression of empathy to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Letter to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. 4 September 2015Investigative Committee of Russia threatens Ukrainian MFA with trials . Ukrayinska Pravda. 7 September 2015 Sweden: In September 2014, then Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said that "[Russian president Vladimir] Putin's actions threaten the entire basis of the post-Cold War order in Europe" and that "Ukraine is an independent nation. It has the right to choose its own destiny. If it wants to belong to the EU, that is up to Ukrainians. Russia has no right to dismember or destabilise independent countries if it doesn't agree with their choices".