KYIV – As many of the world’s leaders met in Paris for ceremonies marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I on November 11, trench warfare was still ravaging Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in a bloody conflict begun when Russia invaded the country in 2014. 

That same day and 1,860 miles east of the solemn event, Russia ensured that its appointed proxies in the occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts remained in place through what the U.S. said were “sham” regional elections.