Leaders all around the world have ramped up their condemnation of Vladimir Putin ’s military aggression against Ukraine after Russian tanks were spotted rolling into the east of the country.
However, while analysts see the move as possibly sparking a much wider conflict between the Kremlin and Western powers, one of the regions affected - Donetsk - has a strange and little-known history that's much closer to home than many might think.
Indeed, as one of Ukraine's biggest cities Donetsk owes its creation to a man from Merthyr Tydfil called John Hughes who, towards the end of the 19th century, left the Valleys to start a new life in what was then one of Imperial Russia's industrial centres.
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His flair for engineering, particularly his development of armour plating for ships, had earned him a world-wide reputation - one which brought him to the attention of Tsar Alexander II, who wanted to borrow the Cyfarthfa-born businessman and dad-of-four's expertise for a naval fortress in the Baltic.
So, in 1869, Hughes, along with dozens of others, embarked on the daunting journey of more than 2,000 miles, boarding eight ships and heading eastwards - ultimately using the opportunity to set up a state-of-the art steel and iron works of his own.
He chose the Donbass region because of its rich mineral deposits and opened a metal works and a “Novorussian society for coal, iron and rails production”.
And, as word reached the ears of skilled workers, engineers and managers back home, around the site gradually grew up a thriving town of ex-pats which was christened Hughesovka (or Yusovka).
Very much a community in its own right, it included a hospital, schools, sports clubs and amateur dramatics societies.
The village had a distinctly British flavour. Rows of red houses filled the streets. An Anglican church was built alongside an English school and there was a Great Britain hotel.
Historical documents show that Hughes' sons eventually joined him in Russia and that he went back to Merthyr to visit his wife a few times but never moved back permanently.
Hughes died in St Petersburg in 1889, aged 74. By that time, he had built an industrial empire staffed mainly by Russians and Ukranians trained and led by his Welsh workforce. His boys continued running the works after he'd gone.
Hughesovka had grown to a population of 50,000 by the turn of the 20th Century, although its Welsh-influence would come to an end with the Russian revolution in 1917, after which it was renamed Stalino.
Most of the British families who'd set up home there returned to the UK and it has since grown to become a modern-day city in which Hughes himself would probably recognise little, although one area remains called Yusovka.
That said, some semblance of the Welshman's legacy still remains. There are still believed to be descendants, including one illegitimate line believed to have been fathered by Hughes with his housekeeper, living in the region.
In 2004, a statue of Hughes was built outside the engineering university. He is portrayed with a hammer and anvil in recognition of his role in founding the heavy industry that dominates the region to this day
And his efforts even inspired a Manic Street Preachers song, namely 'Dreaming A City (Hughesovka)' from the chart-topping Blackwood band's 2014 album Futurology.
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