The Republic of South Ossetia – the State of Alania is a partially recognized state in the South Caucasus that declared independence from Georgia during the South Ossetia War (1991–1992). At the time, the Soviet Union had only just recently collapsed. Since 1991, South Ossetia has sought recognition as a sovereign state from the international community. South Ossetia is considered by most of the international community to be a part of Georgia.
The Donetsk People's Republic is an internationally unrecognized republic of Russia, comprising the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, with its capital in Donetsk. The DPR was created by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022.
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, and 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.
The Luhansk People's Republic or Lugansk People's Republic is an internationally unrecognised 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.
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.
The Minsk agreements were a series of international agreements which sought to end the Donbas war fought between armed Russian separatist groups and Armed Forces of Ukraine, with Russian regular forces playing a central part. After a defeat at Ilovaisk at the end of August 2014, Russia forced Ukraine to sign the first Minsk Protocol, or the Minsk I. It was drafted by the Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine, consisting of Ukraine, Russia, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), with mediation by the leaders of France and Germany in the so-called Normandy Format. After extensive talks in Minsk, Belarus, the agreement was signed on 5 September 2014 by representatives of the Trilateral Contact Group and, without recognition of their status, by the then-leaders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). This agreement followed multiple previous attempts to stop the fighting in the region and aimed to implement an immediate ceasefire.
The 2014 Donbas general elections were held on 2 November 2014 by the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, which were at that time both members of the now defunct Novorossiya confederation.
Separate Guards Assault Battalion "Somalia" named after M. S. Tolstykh, often known as Somalia Battalion, is a military unit of Russian Ground Forces. Until January 1, 2023 it was part of so called self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" (DPR). In September 2022, with a decree of Vladimir Putin, Russia unilaterally "annexed" occupied areas of Ukraine, and after that, military units of DPR and LPR were officially incorporated in Russian Armed Forces.
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.
Donetsk People's Republic–South Ossetia relations are the bilateral relations between the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and South Ossetia. The DPR is a disputed republic of Russia whereas South Ossetia is a partially recognized state. From April 2014 to September 2022, the DPR portrayed itself as an independent state, but this is no longer the case after Russia's annexation of the DPR on 30 September 2022.
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.
From April 2014 until September 2022, the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) claimed to be independent states. Their sovereignty was recognized by South Ossetian authorities in 2014, Russia and Abkhazian authorities in February 2022, Syria in June 2022 and North Korea in July 2022.
Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia has been involved in territorial disputes with a number of other post-Soviet states. These disputes are primarily an aspect of the post-Soviet conflicts, and have led to some countries losing parts of their sovereign territory to what a large portion of the international community designates as a Russian military occupation. As such, these lands are commonly described as Russian-occupied territories, regardless of what their status is in Russian law. The term is applied to Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.
2022 in Russia is the 31st year of the Russian Federation.
Luhansk People's Republic–Russia relations were bilateral relations between Russia and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). The LPR is widely internationally unrecognized, with most of the international community regarding the LPR as a Russian military occupation of a portion of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast. The LPR was annexed by Russia on 30 September 2022; the LPR authorities willingly acceded to Russia, and the annexation is widely internationally unrecognized. From April 2014 to September 2022, the LPR portrayed itself as an independent state, and it was widely regarded as a puppet state of Russia by the international community.
The 2022 evacuation of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic refers to mass evacuation of the residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) to the Russian Federation starting in February 2022.
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.
The general mobilization in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic began on 19 February 2022, 5 days before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Tens of thousands of local residents were forcibly mobilized for the war.
