Conflict in Ukraine's Donbas Region: The Geology Behind the Headlines

Lindsey Graham said the quite part out loud about the natural resources in eastern Ukraine and how much money is involved.

It is not always what you gain from conquest, but what you deprive your competition of.

I dont think those resources play major role for Russia, i mean Russia has immense resources. Primarly it is strategic question.

Thank you for these in-depth explanations of the geological factors of the Ukrainian conflict with Russia. Also we can add, the exceptional riches of the Ukrainian topsoil, which contributes vastly to the country's wealth with the production of wheat and maize and other type of cultures. The name of this particular topsoil is, "Tchernozium". It is a large band of earth stretching from the northwest of the country and going well into Russia to the southeast, and measuring around 1500 km in length, with a width of around 200 km to 400 km.

I suspect it is a major deposit of natural hydrogen that was discovered. It has all the hallmarks of hydrogen potential (a failed rift overlying cratonic basement similar to South Africa, Kansas-Nebrasca, Mali, northern Pyrenees and Lorraine Basin in France, coal etc). Russia has been keen on hydrogen longer than other nations and supported abiotic oil/gas origen more than in west. They are more pragmatic than others because they place more emphasis on geology and science. In the west we have political scientists making decisions which leads to bad decisions. Your explanation for why all the fighting makes more sense. Thank you.

The resources in that area are secondary to the strategic long term military and commercial use of the warm water ports..

I don't know how many of you have actually seen this region. I have. There are what looks like little mountains everywhere. These are slag heaps, mainly from coal mining. Even before the war, there was very little coal mining so most of these slag heaps are unchanged for the last 30 years. This area with the exception of the cities is mainly agricultural and sunflowers are the main crop. There are also large gullies and small ridges so those areas are scrub brush and are not farmed. In climate, this is like Kansas and Missouri. hot and dry in the summer but surprisingly cold in the winter. Prior to the war Donetsk was the most prosperous and modern city in Ukraine. but 10 years of continuous shelling by Ukraine has driven half of the civilians away, mostly to Moscow where there are good jobs. Almost all of the small villages had some sort of industry before the war,. Unfortunately the villages and small cities in what was and is now the combat line is total devastation, not a single house survived. Probably Mariupol will never again be a major steel manufacturing city and instead will be a city of tourism and small industries. That Azov steel plant was obsolete even before it was severely damaged.

In 2006 I served with a medical mission team in Donetsk, seeing a large number of residents as patients and interacting with our local support staff. This does not make me an expert on the region, but I did gain a sense of the people there. East of the Dnieper River everyone speak Russian. I have read of the mass starvation in that region during the 1930’s. Combining that with your excellent commentary on the oil workers moving there from Western Siberia, it seems that the former population had been replaced by people migrating from deeper inside Russia. We went through Deniepro-Petrovsk which is up on the shield east of the Donbas. The region between Donetsk and Deniepro held amazing agricultural land. Does not geology determine to some degree the quality of soil? I suspect Russia wants the Donbas and areas to its east for multiple reasons: to repatriate native Russians, to regain the agricultural zone for wheat and sunflower production, for the oil and gas, and as a strategic buffer from the West. I do not feel any of this justifies the resulting human tragedy. And all this is only my personal speculations.

Just found your channel today. Im impressed with your technical content (im not a geotech but have a lay interest) and your professional manner with not even a hint dramatics... you got a new sub... Your geo take on the conflict adds a very important extra dimension to the discussion. And this conflict is anything but 1 dimensional. I personally think Donbass geo resources werent the primary driver for Russia however it would def be in their interest to restrict a neighbouring LNG competitor to the EU..... of course the US bombing of the Nordstream supply to Germany/EU after Russia rolled into Ukraine would make it a hell of a lot easier to be the LNG pipeline of choice to EU (and Blackrock et al etc).... taking out the competition for Ukraine LNG makes sense now I am not of the opinion that Russia wants to take all of Ukraine and then roll all over the EU. Thats nothing but fear-mongering dramatics and plays into the hands of certain interest groups.... and well trained anti-commie haters enmass... I'd be more interested in the rare earth metals and who wants that very sensitive resource more considering the China supply chain and their response to illegal sanctions.. personally i dont blame them for responding in kind.... What about the mineralogy of the volcanic shield band.. surely there's gold and copper etc etc that's normally associated with volcanic hydrology? I suspect that's got to be a significant player in the equation? I will be binging on your content now thanks. Really like your work. Any interest in discussing New Zealand geology????

Paul, I have watched all your videos and I must say, you are an outstanding educator 👏 Your enthusiasm, clarity and delivery make for a very engaging and informative experience I wish my college professors have had half the game you do Can’t wait for new content. 😀

Keywords being: 1) Mackinder, 2) Lebensraum, 3) Burisma. Geology is a nice accompanying melody line.

I find it interesting that coal gas and oil is found in an area that is so very old. It means that there was a huge amount of plant life in the history of early earth

Weird how this video shows up a year after being made. But two things: Donetsk and Donbas get their name from the river Don that’s further east. And second, while mineral resources play some role, the people of Donbas who have since roughly 890’s identified as Russian rose up against a coup government in 2014. Without understanding that the geological map won’t tell you much

Have been waiting for this explanation. Thank you.

Thank you for this usful information. The geopolitical angle is much more important. The best analysis is provided by Prof. Sachs and Prof. Mearsheimer. Let there be peace in Ukraine.

Hello Professor Day, I love your videos so much! Thank you for covering the geology and science of Ukraine, which is a totally different way to understand the region than geo-politics! Professor, would you also please be able to cover the recent earthquake in Turkiye and Syria that took place Feb 2023, from the science and plate tectonics perspective, as we've learned from your video lectures? Thank you Professor Day, and stay safe!

The bigger reason is nato and nuclear weapons on Russia's front door. Russia has plenty of oil and natural gas. Would we allow Chinese or Russian nuclear weapons in Mexico?

what about rare minerals? (e.g. titanium, lithium etc)

Glad someone has put a video together on this .. I have been presenting this information for about 6 years. When Chevron (west Ukraine) and Shell (east Ukraine) made their discoveries in 2010 and then worked on proving them, the fracking potential in Kramatorsk area was estimated to provide Ukraine with $40B / year and make it the Saudi Arabia of Europe. October / November 2014 was when Yanukovich signed the deals with Chevron and Shell. If you overlay the timeline of when Mikola Schlochevskiy (Burisma and the Minister of Interior in charge of leasing under Yanukovich) murdered his business partner Lissan and then hired Hunter and the capital investment of CEFC for Burisma to obtain and control the leasing rights to the prime plays in DonBas .. things start to make sense. Yanukovich and Firtash controlled the gas gathering and transportation through Dima Firtash’s NaftoGaz control (their silent partner was Semyon Migolyevich and Putin) .. and Yanukovich and Schlochevskiy controlled the leasing and land (their silent partner was Biden and EU). The EU wanted to control Ukraine’s development (like a corrupt trustee rapes a foster child of their wealth and future) through IMF loans ($15B) subsidizing gas cost to EU and Ukrainian oligarch steel works so both sides benefits — but Ukrainian people would see their gas prices go up to pay for the loan. Putin’s loan didn’t push subsidies on Ukrainian people AND didn’t have the land reform that allowed foreigners to buy up the land.. very very important. The crime we committed (I was there at energy conference backstage when Nuland told Biden Yanukovich rejected the deal and he freaked out screaming). This entire war is a coverup for a crime .. in which both sides were going to sell energy and food to China.. Insanity and Vanity.. all about geology

Phantastic content. The missing puzzle piece. Now I understand.