Here we are: three years of war.
I remember the days and weeks just before the Special Military Operation (SMO) started. I was following Russian Telegram channels from the Donbass, following local citizen reporters, just trying to make sense of what’s happening.
Frightened Donetsk teenagers getting flashbacks to the worst days of 2014 due to the Ukrainian terror shelling. Grandmas dying because the water and electricity in their tiny villages was shut off by Ukrainian rockets. Weird troop movements all along the line of contact. OSCE reporting on massive Ukrainian shelling every day — classic preparatory artillery fire before a ground offensive. Ukrainian DRGs operating behind DPR & LPR lines, trying to capture border checkpoints.
I remember thinking: is Kiev really gonna do it? Is the Donbass doomed? After eight years of Minsk II madness, I had no conceptual framework for expecting Russia to actually act. That’s why I didn’t believe it would happen, right until it did.
