Human rights activist Valeria Novodvorskaya made this appeal to the separatists of Donbas back in June 2014, shortly before her death. Listen to what future of the region she was talking about back then: "Why are you going to die and for whom? It should be clear to you by now that Putin does not need Donbas. He doesn't need you, he needs a black hole. He needs the border to create a black hole to send weapons, weapons through it and attack Ukraine, so that there will be war all the time, so that #Ukraine will not reform. And you are just cannon fodder".

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