Luhansk People's Republic

Luhansk People's Republic[a]
Луганская Народная Республика
Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast in Europe, claimed and militarily contested as the Luhansk People's Republic by Russia[1]
Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast in Europe, claimed and militarily contested as the Luhansk People's Republic by Russia[1]
Establishment27 April 2014[2]
Annexation by Russia30 September 2022
Administrative centreLuhansk
Government
 • BodyPeople's Council
 • HeadLeonid Pasechnik
Population
 (2019)[3]
 • Total1,485,300[b]

The Luhansk People's Republic or Lugansk People's Republic[c] (Russian: Луга́нская Наро́дная Респу́блика, romanizedLuganskaya Narodnaya Respublika, IPA: [lʊˈɡanskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə]; abbreviated as LPR or LNR, Russian: ЛНР) is an internationally unrecognised republic of Russia in the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, with its capital in Luhansk.[4][5] 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.

Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity in 2014, pro-Russian, counter-revolutionary unrest erupted in the eastern part of the country. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, while the armed separatists seized government buildings and proclaimed the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) and Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) as independent states. This sparked the war in Donbas, part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The LPR and DPR are often described as puppet states of Russia during this conflict.[6][7][8] They received no international recognition from United Nations member states before 2022.

On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the LPR and DPR as sovereign states. Three days later, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, partially under the pretext of protecting the republics. Russian forces captured more of Luhansk Oblast (almost all of it),[9] which became part of the LPR. In September 2022, Russia proclaimed the annexation of the LPR and other occupied territories, following illegitimate referendums which were illegal under international law. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it called the "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw".[10]

The Head of the Luhansk People's Republic is Leonid Pasechnik. According to a report by the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), the ideology of the LPR is shaped by elements of right-wing Russian nationalism, Russian imperialism and Orthodox fundamentalism.[11] Organizations such as the UN Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch have reported human rights abuses in the LPR, including internment, torture, extrajudicial killings, forced conscription, as well as political and media repression. Ukraine views the LPR and DPR as terrorist organisations.[12]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ "Путин: Россия признала ДНР и ЛНР в границах Донецкой и Луганской областей". BBC Russia. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  2. ^ "Separatists Declare 'People's Republic' In Ukraine's Luhansk". RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  3. ^ "Luhansk oblast". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  4. ^ Ledur, Júlia (21 November 2022). "What Russia has gained and lost so far in Ukraine, visualized". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  5. ^ "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, September 30". Institute for the Study of War. 30 September 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  6. ^ Johnson, Jamie; Parekh, Marcus; White, Josh; Vasilyeva, Nataliya (4 August 2022). "Officer who 'boasted' of killing civilians becomes Russia's first female commander to die". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  7. ^ Bershidsky, Leonid (13 November 2018). "Eastern Ukraine: Why Putin Encouraged Sham Elections in Donbass". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  8. ^ "Russian Analytical Digest No 214: The Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine". css.ethz.ch. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  9. ^ "Russia-Ukraine war latest: two killed in attack on Zaporizhzhia as Russia launches mass strikes across Ukraine". the Guardian. 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
  10. ^ "Ukraine: UN General Assembly demands Russia reverse course on 'attempted illegal annexation'". 12 October 2022.
  11. ^ Likhachev, Vyacheslav (July 2016). "The Far Right in the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine" (PDF). Russie.NEI.Visions in English. pp. 25–26. Retrieved 1 March 2022. The ideas of Russian imperial (and, to some extent, ethnic) nationalism and Orthodox fundamentalism shaped the official ideology of the DNR and LNR. ... It can therefore be argued that the official ideology of the DNR and LNR, which developed under the influence of Russian far-right activists, is largely right-wing, conservative and xenophobic in character.
  12. ^ "Ukraine's prosecutor general classifies self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk republics as terrorist organizations". Kyiv Post. 16 May 2014. Archived from the original on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2016.

© MMXXIII Rich X Search. We shall prevail. All rights reserved. Rich X Search