© Alexander Zemlianichenko | APCrimeans gather with Russian national and Crimea flags in Sevastopol, Crimea, March 14, 2018.
High on my travel list, however, was to visit Crimea and Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) — the former a part of Russia, the latter an autonomous republic in the east of Ukraine, neither accurately depicted in Western reporting. Or at least that was my sense looking at independent journalists' reports and those in Russian media.
Both regions are native Russian-speaking areas; both opted out of Ukraine in 2014. In the case of Crimea, joining Russia (or actually rejoining, as most I spoke to in Crimea phrased it) was something people overwhelmingly supported. In the case of the Donbass region, the turmoil of Ukraine's Maidan coup in 2014 set things in motion for the people in the region to declare independence and form the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
In March 2014, Crimeans held a referendum during which 96 percent of voters chose to join Russia. This has been heavily disputed in Western media, with claims that Crimeans were forced to hold the referendum and claims of Russian troops on the streets "occupying" the peninsula.
Because Western media insisted the referendum was a sham held under duress, and because they bandy about the term "pro-Russian separatists" for the people of the DPR, I decided to go and speak to people in these areas to hear what they actually want and feel.
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