The regions known as Donetsk and Luhansk are sometimes mentioned in the news. They are the separatist regions of
- (a)Ethiopia
- (b)Sudan
- (c)Ukraine
- (d)Yemen
Correct — C, Ukraine. Donetsk and Luhansk are two oblasts in the east of Ukraine, and together they make up most of the coal-and-steel basin known as the Donbas. Armed groups seized government buildings across both oblasts in the spring of 2014; a Donetsk People's Republic was proclaimed on 7 April 2014 and a Luhansk People's Republic in the same weeks. For eight years no United Nations member recognised either. On 21 February 2022 Russia recognised the two as independent states, and three days later it launched its full-scale invasion. In international law both oblasts are Ukrainian territory, and that is what the stem is asking for.
- (a)Ethiopia — Ethiopia's war of those years was in Tigray, in the north, where federal forces fought the Tigray People's Liberation Front from November 2020; its other names in the news are Oromia, Amhara and Afar. No Ethiopian region is called Donetsk or Luhansk.
- (b)Sudan — Sudan's secession story ran through the south, which voted in a January 2011 referendum and became the separate state of South Sudan that July, and through the long conflict in Darfur. Neither name in the stem belongs to Sudanese geography.
- (d)Yemen — Yemen's war set the Houthi movement of the northern highlands against the internationally recognised government, with a Southern Transitional Council pressing the case of the old South Yemen. The places argued over there are Sanaa, Aden, Marib and Hodeidah.
The Donbas is the industrial east of Ukraine, built on coal seams and the steel plants that grew beside them, and heavily Russian-speaking. After the Maidan protests of early 2014 and Russia's annexation of Crimea that March, separatist administrations were declared in Donetsk and Luhansk and a war began along a line that then barely moved for seven years. Two Minsk agreements, signed in September 2014 and February 2015, set out a ceasefire, a special status for the region and a return of the border to Ukrainian control; none of that was carried out.
All four options were countries with a live internal conflict in 2022, which is what makes the item work as a test of reading rather than of opinion. The give-away is linguistic — Donetsk and Luhansk are Slavic city names, and both regions take their names from their capital cities. Anchor the answer to the paper: CDS (II) 2022 was written in September 2022, six months into the invasion, when Russia had recognised the two republics but claimed no title to their land. That changed on 30 September 2022, three weeks after the exam, when Russia announced the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk together with Zaporizhzhia and Kherson — a claim that remains unrecognised internationally, so the answer the key wants has not been overtaken.
- Donetsk and Luhansk are oblasts of eastern Ukraine; together they form the industrial region called the Donbas.
- Separatists proclaimed a Donetsk People's Republic on 7 April 2014, and a Luhansk People's Republic in the same spring.
- Russia recognised both as independent on 21 February 2022; the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022.
- Russia announced the annexation of the two oblasts, along with Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, on 30 September 2022.
- Crimea, further south, had been annexed by Russia earlier, in March 2014.
Every option had a conflict running in 2022. Only one of them has oblasts.
- Treating a separatist region as a country in its own right; the stem asks for the state whose recognised territory it is.
- Merging the Donbas with Crimea — different years, different legal claims and different geography.
- Assuming the September 2022 annexation changed the answer. It is not internationally recognised.
Either as a straight region-to-country item like this one, or as a pairs question matching four regions in the news with four countries.
Consider the following pairs: Regions sometimes mentioned in news — Country 1. Catalonia — Spain 2. Crimea — Hungary 3. Mindanao — Philippines 4. Oromia — Nigeria Which of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
- (a) 1, 2 and 3
- (b) 3 and 4 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 2 and 4 only
Answer(c) 1 and 3 only
The same skill, and two of the same places. That item fails a candidate on Crimea, which is Ukrainian and not Hungarian, and on Oromia, which is Ethiopian and not Nigerian — the two countries that also supply the tempting wrong answers here.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Donbas region, in the news since 2014, lies mainly within which one of the following countries?
- (a)Belarus
- (b)Ukraine
- (c)Romania
- (d)Georgia
Answer(b) Ukraine — the Donbas covers the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts of eastern Ukraine.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following peninsulas was annexed by Russia in March 2014?
- (a)Kola
- (b)Crimea
- (c)Taimyr
- (d)Kamchatka
Answer(b) Crimea — annexed in March 2014, eight years before the Donetsk and Luhansk annexation claim of September 2022.