Bakhmut is a city in eastern Ukraine. It is officially the administrative center of Bakhmut urban hromada and Bakhmut Raion in Donetsk Oblast. The city is located on the Bakhmutka River, about 90 kilometres north of Donetsk, the administrative center of the oblast. Bakhmut was designated a city of regional significance until 2020, when the designation was abolished. In January 2022, it had an estimated population of 71,094.
Avdiivka is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. The city is located in the centre of the oblast, just north of the regional centre, Donetsk. The large Avdiivka Coke Plant is located in Avdiivka. The city had a population of 31,392 before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but it was reported as 1,600 in October 2023, and then "just over 1,000", mostly living below ground level.
The Donetsk People's Republic is a republic of Russia, comprising the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, with its capital in Donetsk.
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.
The war in Donbas, also known as the Donbas war, was a phase of the Russo-Ukrainian War in the Donbas region of Ukraine. The war began in April 2014, when a commando unit headed by Russian citizen Igor Girkin seized Sloviansk in Donetsk oblast. The Ukrainian military launched an operation against them. The war continued until subsumed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Chasiv Yar is a city in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of Bakhmut and is the center of Chasiv Yar urban hromada. In January 2022, it had a population of 12,250, though RBC News claimed the population in May 2024 had been reduced to 600 due to evacuations from Russian shelling and fighting within the city.
Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone, or ATO zone, was a term used by the media, publicity, the government of Ukraine, and the OSCE and other foreign institutions to identify Ukrainian territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (oblasts) under the control of Russian military forces and pro-Russian separatists. A significant part of ATO zone is considered temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
Russian irredentism refers to territorial claims made by the Russian Federation to regions that were historically part of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, which Russian nationalists regard as part of the "Russian world". It seeks to create a Greater Russia by politically incorporating ethnic Russians and Russian speakers living in territories bordering Russia. This ideology has been significantly defined by the regime of Vladimir Putin, who has governed the country since 1999. It is linked to Russian neo-imperialism.
Ukrainian volunteer battalions were militias and paramilitary groups mobilized as a response to the perceived state of weakness and unwillingness of the regular Armed Forces to counter rising separatism in spring 2014. They trace their origins to the "Maidan Self-Defense" militias formed during the Euromaidan in 2013. The earliest of these volunteer units were later formalized into military, special police and paramilitary formations in a response to the Russian military intervention in Ukraine in 2014. Most of the formations were formed or placed under command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — as "Special Tasks Patrol Police" — and Ministry of Defence — as "Territorial defence battalions". A minority of battalions were independent of state control.
The Wagner Group, officially known as PMC Wagner, is a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC) controlled until 2023 by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former close ally of Russia's president Vladimir Putin, and since then by Pavel Prigozhin. The Wagner Group has used infrastructure of the Russian Armed Forces. Evidence suggests that Wagner has been used as a proxy by the Russian government, allowing it to have plausible deniability for military operations abroad, and hiding the true casualties of Russia's foreign interventions.
The Georgian National Legion or Georgian Legion is a military unit formed by mostly ethnic Georgian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine in the war in Donbas and the Russo-Ukrainian War. The unit was organized in 2014, and in 2016 it was made part of the Ukrainian Army, under the 25th Mechanized Infantry Battalion "Kyiv Rus". On 15 June 2024, the unit was classified as a terrorist organization by the Russian government.
The combatants of the war in Donbas included foreign and domestic forces.
Ukraine's easternmost oblasts, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kharkiv, have been the site of an ongoing theatre of operation since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russo-Ukrainian War has seen foreign volunteers participate on both sides of the conflict. Most foreign fighters joined the conflict during one of two waves. The first wave happened from 2014 to 2019 during the War in the Donbas and consisted of approximately 17,241 foreign fighters. The second wave is considered by researchers to have been much larger and began in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The battle of Donbas was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern Ukraine campaign of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region. Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.
The Sheikh Mansur Chechen Peacekeeping Battalion or simply the Sheikh Mansur Battalion is one of several Chechen volunteer Armed Formations participating in the Russian-Ukrainian war on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The battalion is named in honour of Sheikh Mansur, a Chechen military commander and an Islamic leader who fought against the expansion of the Russian Empire into the Caucasus during the late 18th century.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War:
Redut, also known as Redoubt, Redut-Antiterror, Redut Security or Centre R, formerly known as "Shield", is a registered Russian Private Military Company (PMC) that is a part of the "Antiterror-family" — a group of PMCs that protect commercial operations of Russian companies. It is currently deployed by Russia in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to an RFE/RL investigation, concurrent "Redut" is controlled by the GRU and acts as a proxy umbrella organization for mercenaries, managing finances, recruitment and logistical supply of various formations.
Over the course of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022, irregular military units began to play a more prominent role in the fighting, alongside the regular Russian Armed Forces. In the face of waning recruitment levels for the military as casualties mounted, the Russian government increasingly turned to a variety of mercenaries, militias, paramilitaries, and mobilized convicts. In a similar fashion to the pro-Russian people's militias in Ukraine such as the DPR People's Militia and LPR People's Militia, the combat effectiveness of these irregular combatants varies greatly. This can be seen in the contrast between the poorly equipped and virtually untrained prisoners serving under Storm-Z and the professional mercenaries of PMC Wagner. The Wagner group itself also used convicts in its ranks, alongside its more experienced cadre of fighters. The organization garnered much notoriety as it took up an increasingly prominent role in the fighting in late 2022, culminating in the Battle of Bakhmut.
The Pyatnashka International Brigade, or simply the Pyatnashka, is a military unit of the Russian Ground Forces. Until 1 January 2023, it was part of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). It is attached to the Volunteer Corps. It mainly consists of international volunteers. The brigade is led by Akhra Avidzba, an officer of Abkhaz origin.
Russia 
Russian people's militias in Ukraine 