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The territory of modern Donbas was part of a vast ethno-contact zone known as part of the medieval Wild Steppe (or Wild Fields – Dyke Pole). That is, it was territory over which none of the macroregion's state formations had effective control. 2/

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The Ukrainian steppe was a medieval frontier, a place between trade caravans routes from Asia to Europe and back, as well as a site of periodic clashes and attempts at a coexistence between different peoples. 3/

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With the Mongol Empire's feudal fragmentation, the situation began to become more or less stable. Tatars and Nogai roamed the steppes at the time. Slavic farmers who settled along rivers in what is now Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts were frequently ravaged by nomads. 4/

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Although Tatars did not welcome the settlement of Wild Steppe, by the 15-16 c., an increasing number of peasants fleeing serfdom in the Rzeczpospolita and the Tsardom of Muscovy were making their way there. The outline of the Wild steppe as a "melting pot" started to emerge. 5/

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Around the same time (late 15th-16th c.), groups of Cossacks appeared on the steppes of eastern Ukraine, made up of Ukrainians fleeing colonial powers. It was not a natural search for new territories; rather, it was an attempt to make feudal lords leave them alone. 6/

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By the end of the 16th – beginning of the 17th centuries, Cossacks had established noticeable settlements along the Donets River, including Bakhmut, Osynovyi Ostroh, and Novopskov. Simultaneously, salt production begins in Bakhmut and Tor (now Sloviansk). 7/

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Cossacks, being a military force controlling the borders with the Crimean Khanate, outlined their political weight in the early 17th century during the "Time of Troubles" in Muscovy - everyone wanted their support in the fight to seize the throne after the death of Ivan IV. 8/

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Sviatohirsk Cave Monastery, founded in 1547, is particularly noteworthy. According to some sources, a Christian settlement existed in these areas as early as the 12th century. The monastery was and still is the largest Christian center in the region. 9/

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The steppe east of Ukraine became a deep rear for the Ukrainians during the Cossack uprisings from the late 16th to the mid 17th centuries. Following unsuccessful clashes with the Poles, Cossack detachments withdrew to the "Wild Steppe." 10/

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Following the Pereiaslav Agreement (1654), left-bank Ukraine became subservient to Muscovy, and the Ukrainian steppe grew as its southern outpost. In the 17th-18th c. the region was gradually populated by "Cherkassy" and “Khartzyzy” (Ukrainians from the central Dnipro region) 11/

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By the early 18th century, the eastern Ukrainian steppes had been a place of freedom from serfdom and a military frontier with the Crimean Khanate. And Bakhmut becomes the region's focal point, serving as the region's salt capital and main fortification. 12/

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Following the destruction of Zaporozhian Sich in 1709, Cossacks were once again permitted to settle in the Wild Steppes only in 1734. Then they established the Kalmiusskaya Palanka (military region) with its headquarters in Domakha (now the territory of Mariupol). 13/

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Following the Russian-Turkish war of 1735–39, the RU Empire gained control of the Azov sea region, necessitating the settlement of the steppes in preparation for another war. As a result, Serbs and Croats from the Ottoman Empire were invited to settle in Ukraine's steppes. 14/

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Serbs and Croats were given land between the Bakhmut and Luhan rivers, it was called Slavo-Serbia. Though, settlers from Balkans were not coming in sufficient numbers, so Ukrainians and Moldovans from southern Ukraine were sent there. 15/

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The Greeks who "came out of the Crimea" settled in the east of Ukraine at the end of the 18th century. They settled along the Kalmius River and including Mariupol and surrounding areas – that's where names like Nova Yalta (New Yalta) or Stary Krym (Old Crimea) came from. 16/

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German Mennonites settled in eastern Ukraine in the first half of the 19th century, with a sizable number settling near Mariupol. They were farmers, but after the introduction of compulsory military service for colonists in the 1870s, they fled Ukraine for North America. 17/

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After the Partitions of

at the end of the 18th c, the

Empire had the greatest number of Jews in Europe. They began to migrate within the Pale of Settlement, which included east of Ukraine. By the mid-19th c, the Bakhmut population was 15% Jewish, including my family 18/

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