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This is a list article about flags that have been used by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and in areas occupied by Russia and Russian-controlled forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
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This is a list article about flags that have been used by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and in areas occupied by Russia and Russian-controlled forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The flag of the Donetsk People's Republic was claimed by the Russian-controlled militias to be based on the flag of the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, whom they claim as the "People's Republic's" predecessor. [1] However, there is no evidence of any such flag in 1918, and it is most likely based on the flag of the International Movement of Donbass , a Soviet anti-Ukrainian independence organisation started at Donetsk University in August 1989. [2] [3]
The original DPR flag also featured a coat of arms of the republic that said "Donetsk Rus' " (Донецкая Русь) in the centre. It was identical to the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Republic political party flag, while also retaining the words "Donetsk Republic" (Russian: Донецкая Республика). A simpler white double-headed eagle variant was used by pro-Russian protesters since 7 April 2014 and then by separatists of the Donbas People's Militia.
By October 2014, a second main flag which carried the words "Donetsk People's Republic" (Донецкая Народная Республика) was created with an updated doubled-headed eagle that looked less similar to the Russian coat of arms. This flag appeared to be more prominently used by the militant organization, even appearing on ballot boxes during their 2014 elections.[ citation needed ] The simplified black, blue and red tricolor without inscriptions or coats of arms started being adopted after 2017.[ citation needed ]
There have been several flags used to represent the Luhansk People's Republic. The first flag featured a similar design to the flag used by the Donetsk People's Republic, the main differences being that the top stripe was light blue or azure, a color used in the 1950–1992 flag of the Ukrainian SSR, instead of black. It featured a different coat of arms, and it contained the words Luhansk Republic (Луганская Республика) in Russian. The original shade of light blue used for the top stripe may have been inspired by the shade of blue used in the flag of the city of Luhansk. The second was adopted at some point in October 2014, with an abbreviation of the group's local name replacing the aforementioned text. On 2 November 2014, the Republic adopted a new flag that resembled the previous flags but lacked the coat of arms.
Russia initially occupied much of Kherson Oblast in early 2022, but was forced to retreat from the right bank of the Dnieper River, giving up the city of Kherson in November.
At the signing of the agreement on the accession of the Kherson Oblast to Russia by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of the region, Volodymyr Saldo, the flag of Kherson Oblast was seen, but in the middle of white stripe, there is the 1803 coat of arms of Kherson supported by golden oak branches and blue ribbons, and surmounted by the Imperial Crown. [15] [ failed verification ]
Russia occupies the southern half of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast as of 2023.
In the early months of the occupation, the coat of arms used by the occupational forces was originally a re-worded version of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. [16] [17] Though on 25 May 2022, it was replaced by the 1811 coat of arms of the city of Zaporizhzhia (then called Oleksandrivsk in Ukrainian or Aleksandrovsk in Russian), which was again adopted by the city in 2003, with the magenta color associated with Cossacks replaced with red due to "historical" reasons. [18]
On 30 September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, despite controlling only the southern part of it. [19] At a Moscow signing ceremony between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-installed head of the occupied southern half of the oblast, Yevhen Balytskyi, the flag of the Zaporizhzhia region was presented as a bi-color field in green and red, and the 1811 coat of arms of Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhzhia at the time) in the middle. [20] The bicolor of green and red is similar to the flags of Belarus, Burkina Faso, and the Comoros from 1975–1978 albeit inverted.
The Kharkiv People's Republic (Russian: Харьковская Народная Республика) was a short-lived self-proclaimed state in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was declared by separatists during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. The separatists were led by Yevhen Zhylin. [21] It was created on 7 April 2014 when pro-Russian protesters stormed government buildings in Kharkiv and declared the Kharkiv People's Republic. It was dissolved when Ukrainian authorities regained control of the building later that same day. [22] [23] [24] The 2014 flag was similar in appearance to the current flag of Dagestan.
Novorossiya (literally "New Russia") was an unrecognised confederation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, claiming the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. However, on 20 May 2015, the leaders of the Federal State of Novorossiya declared that they would halt the confederation 'project.' [27]
The battle flag is based on the naval jack of the Imperial Russian Navy. Oleksandr Chalenko, who worked as a political journalist in Kyiv, described the flag and explained its symbolism in an item published by Izvestia on 20 March 2014: [28] "It's a red flag with a blue Saint Andrew's cross. The flag of the Russian Navy. Of the Navy, which played a prominent military role in the emergence and establishment of historical Novorossiya."
A white-yellow-black tricolor was presented on 13 August 2014 by Oleg Tsaryov as a potential flag for the confederation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. [29] [ better source needed ] This resembled an upside-down Romanov flag, which was the national flag of the Russian Empire from 1858 to 1883.
Some have noted that the flag's design resembles the Confederate States of America's Navy jack and battle flag, known also as the "Dixie flag", though this is almost certainly a coincidence. [30] [31] Ukrainian political analyst Mikhail Pavliv is credited with having created the flag; Pavliv explains that he had simply stumbled upon the flag online somewhere, and that the leader of the New Russia Party, Pavel Gubarev, later picked it up.[ citation needed ] However, Gubarev has stated that the inspiration for the flag came from banners used by Cossacks in the 18th century.[ citation needed ] The only Cossacks that used a similar banner where the Semirechye Cossacks from Kyrgyzstan who never saw combat or service in or near Ukraine.[ citation needed ]
Khrustalnyi or Krasnyi Luch is a city in Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Its population is approximately 79,533. It has historically been one of the most important coal mining locations in the Donbas region.
The Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic or Donetsk–Kryvyi Rih Soviet Republic was a self-declared Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR proclaimed on 12 February 1918. It was founded three days after the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) signed its Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with the Central Powers, which recognised the borders of the UPR. Lenin did not support the creation of the entity and neither did Sverdlov. Some other Bolsheviks like Elena Stasova, however, sent a telegraph of best wishes.
From the end of February 2014, in the aftermath of the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity, which resulted in the ousting of Russian-leaning Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, demonstrations by Russian-backed, pro-Russian, and anti-government groups took place in Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv and Odesa. The unrest, which was supported by the Russian military and intelligence services, belongs to the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
The Social Movement "Donetsk Republic" is a pro-Russian separatist political movement operating in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Before its annexation, the movement's goal was the creation of a "federation of sovereign Donetsk", which would include seven regions of eastern and southern Ukraine. The group was banned in 2007, but this ban was marginal until the 2014 Donbas war. In 2014, it founded the Donetsk People's Republic, which Ukraine's government deems a terrorist organization. The movement won the 2014 Donbas general elections with 68.53% of the vote and 68 seats, which were condemned as illegitimate and a violation of the Minsk ceasefire agreements between Ukraine, Russia, and the OSCE.
This is a timeline of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest that has erupted in Ukraine, in the aftermath of the Ukrainian revolution and the Euromaidan movement.
Russian separatist forces in Ukraine, primarily the People's Militias of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), were pro-Russian paramilitaries in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. They were under the overall control of the Russian Federation. They were also referred to as Russian proxy forces. They were active during the war in Donbas (2014–2022), the first stage of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They then supported the Russian Armed Forces against the Ukrainian Armed Forces during the 2022 Russian invasion. In September 2022, Russia annexed the DPR and LPR, and began integrating the paramilitaries into its armed forces. They are designated as terrorist groups by the government of Ukraine.
Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin is a Russian politician who has served as the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) since 2018. He has held the position in an acting capacity ever since the Russian annexation of the DPR in 2022.
The Luhansk or Lugansk People's Republic is a republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk. The LPR was proclaimed by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022. The entire territory of LPR is viewed as sovereign territory of Ukraine by nearly all UN member states.
Novorossiya or New Russia, also referred to as the Union of People's Republics, was a project for a confederation between the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) in Eastern Ukraine, both of which were under the control of pro-Russian separatists.
Novorossiya is a historical name, used during the era of the Russian Empire for an administrative area that would later become the southern mainland of Ukraine: the region immediately north of the Black Sea and Crimea. The province fell largely within a slightly wider area known in Ukrainian as the Stepovyna and in Russian as the Stepp "Steppe Land", or Nyz "Lower Land". The name Novorossiya, which means New Russia, entered official usage in 1764, after the Russian Empire conquered the Crimean Khanate, and annexed its territories, when Novorossiya Governorate was founded. Official usage of the name ceased after 1917, when the entire area was annexed by the Ukrainian People's Republic, precursor of the Ukrainian SSR.
The Donets Railway is a railway in Donbas, Eastern Ukraine. It is one of six rail systems owned and operated by Ukrainian Railways. It is part-owned by the Ukrainian government; Russia has claimed it since the 2014 Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Because of that, only part of the Donetsk Railway is operational. In December 2014, a regional branch of Ukrzaliznytsia Donetsk Railway was created and the headquarters was moved from Donetsk to Lyman.
Donbas Post is an enterprise that operates the postal system of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, the non-recognized entities created by Russia-backed separatists on the illegally annexed Ukrainian territories. It has been difficult for its operation due to the Russian aggression in Ukraine being upscaled to a full scale invasion of Russia and the Donbass region being a key region of the fighting.
Leonid Ivanovich Pasechnik is a Ukrainian-born politician who has served as Head of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) since 2017. He holds the position in acting capacity ever since the illegal and unrecognized Russian annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts in 2022. Pasechnik had previously held office as the LPR's Minister of State Security from 2014 to 2018.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting Russian occupation of multiple Ukrainian towns and cities, numerous cases of non-violent resistance against the invasion took place. Local residents organised protests against the invasion and blocked the movement of Russian military equipment. The Russian military dispersed the protests, sometimes with live fire, injuring many and killing some. Most of the large protests ended in March.
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia occupied vast portions of the territory of Ukraine, having already occupied parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts as well as the entire Autonomous Republic of Crimea since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2014. Partisan groups began to be organized in mid-2022. These groups have been involved in intelligence-gathering, sabotage, and assassinations. Much of their activity has taken place in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
In late September 2022, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian-installed officials in Ukraine staged so-called referendums on the annexation of occupied territories of Ukraine by Russia. They were widely described as sham referendums by commentators and denounced by various countries. The validity of the results of the referendums has been accepted by North Korea, and no other sovereign state.
We Are Together with Russia is a pro-Russian collaborationist organization operating in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast and supported by the Russian authorities. It describes itself as an "integration movement". The movement actively advocates the accession of the region to the Russian Federation, and according to the Ukrainian media it is actively involved in the preparation of "referendums" on the occupied Ukrainian territories becoming part of Russia. Its activities are being organized by the United Russia party and the All-Russia People's Front, headed by Vladimir Putin.
On 30 September 2022, Russia, amid an ongoing invasion of Ukraine, unilaterally declared its annexation of areas in and around four Ukrainian oblasts—Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia. Most of Luhansk Oblast and part of Donetsk Oblast had been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, while the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts were invaded by Russia in 2022. The boundaries of the areas to be annexed and their borders were not defined; Russian officials stated that they would be defined later. None of the oblasts were fully under Russian control at the time of the declaration, nor since. If limited to the areas then under Russian control the annexation would still be the largest in Europe since World War II.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War:
But Vladimir Kornilov, the world's leading – and only – specialist on the short-lived state (and author of The Assassinated Dream, a book on its history), does not agree. The myths that grew around the Republic, [Kornilov] added, led to distorted views of its history, and 'pictures of some flag which was never actually used.' In fact, the flag used by the Donetsk People's Republic is, with alterations, that of the International Movement for Donbas or the Interdvizheniye Donbasa, an organisation whose roots started only in August 1989, in a lecture theatre of Donetsk University.
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