In 2014, Western media took a liking to frequent reporting on what they deemed to be the Ukrainian conflict, labeling the paid-by-Russia militia and their Russian troops as separatists. Through that perception of an independent group of people in the region of Donbas, whose culture and identity were supposedly persecuted, the narrative was formed that they wanted nothing more than to cease being Ukrainian and form their own sub-republics adjacent to Mother Russia.

Today we'll discuss what really happened in Donetsk in 2014 from the perspective of a then 16-year-old born and raised in the city. Were there really pro-Russian crowds yearning to separate from Ukraine, so much that they decided to create their own independent republics?