It then threw its weight behind an insurgency in the mostly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine region known as Donbas. Amid ferocious battles involving tanks, heavy artillery and warplanes, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing all 298 people aboard. France and Germany brokered another peace agreement, which was signed in Minsk in February 2015 by representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the rebels. A declaration backing the deal was signed by the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany. Two rounds of talks in Paris and Berlin between presidential envoys from Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany have yielded no progress.
