Donetsk People's Republic

Donetsk People's Republic
Донецкая Народная Республика
Republic of Russia
(contested)
Flag of Donetsk People's Republic
Flag
Coat of arms of Donetsk People's Republic
Coat of arms
Anthem:
Государственный гимн Донецкой Народной Республики
Gosudarstvennyy gimn Donetskoy Narodnoy Respubliki
"State Anthem of the Donetsk People's Republic"
Territory of Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast controlled by Russia as DPR shown in red and pink; territory claimed but not controlled shown in yellow and blue[2]
Territory of Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast controlled by Russia as DPR shown in red and pink; territory claimed but not controlled shown in yellow and blue[2]
DPR in its borders claimed by Russia shown in red, along with other disputed territories hatched
DPR in its borders claimed by Russia shown in red, along with other disputed territories hatched
Coordinates: 48°08′N 37°44′E / 48.14°N 37.74°E / 48.14; 37.74
CountryRussia (partly controlled; internationally recognized as part of Ukraine)
Federal districtSouthern[1]
Established7 April 2014[3]
(as a breakaway state)
30 September 2022
(as a republic of Russia)
Administrative centreDonetsk
Government
 • BodyPeople's Council
 • HeadDenis Pushilin
 • Prime MinisterYevgeny Solntsev
Population
 • Total
?
Time zoneUTC+3 (MSK[4])
License plates80, 180[5]
OKTMO ID21000000
Official languageRussian[6]
Websiteднронлайн.рф

The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; Russian: Донецкая Народная Республика (ДНР), romanized: Donetskaya Narodnaya Respublika (DNR), IPA: [dɐˈnʲetskəjə nɐˈrodnəjə rʲɪˈspublʲɪkə]) is a republic of Russia, comprising the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast,[7][8] with its capital in Donetsk. The DPR was created by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014,[9][10] and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was illegally annexed in 2022. The entire territory of DPR is viewed as sovereign territory of Ukraine by nearly all UN member states.

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 armed separatists seized government buildings and proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) as independent states. This sparked the war in Donbas, part of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War. The DPR and LPR are often described as puppet states of Russia during this conflict.[11][12][13] They received no international recognition from any United Nations member state before 2022.

On 21 February 2022, Russia recognised the DPR and LPR as sovereign states. Three days later, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, partially under the pretext of protecting the republics. Russian forces captured more of Donetsk Oblast, which became part of the DPR. In September 2022, Russia proclaimed the annexation of the DPR and other occupied territories, following referendums widely described as fraudulent by commentators. 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".[14][15]

The Head of DPR is Denis Pushilin, and its parliament is the People's Council. The ideology of the DPR is shaped by right-wing Russian nationalism, Russian imperialism, and Orthodox fundamentalism.[16] Russian far-right groups played an important role among the separatists, especially at the beginning of the conflict.[17] Organizations such as the UN Human Rights Office and Human Rights Watch have reported human rights abuses in the DPR, including internment, torture, extrajudicial killings, and forced conscription,[18] as well as political and media repression. The DPR People's Militia has also been held responsible for war crimes, among them the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17.[19] Ukraine views the DPR and LPR as terrorist organisations.[20]

  1. ^ "Южный федеральный округ" (in Russian). 1 January 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Путин: Россия признала ДНР и ЛНР в границах Донецкой и Луганской областей". BBC Russia. 22 February 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  3. ^ "Ukraine crisis: Protesters declare Donetsk 'republic'". BBC News. 7 April 2014. Retrieved 16 October 2022.
  4. ^ "Новые субъекты РФ официально перейдут на московское время". Interfax.ru (in Russian). 27 January 2023. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  5. ^ "МВД опубликовало коды автомобильных номеров для новых субъектов России" [The Ministry of Internal Affairs has published vehicle registration codes for the new regions of Russia.]. РБК (in Russian). 5 October 2022. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  6. ^ Official throughout the Russian Federation according to Article 68.1 of the Constitution of Russia.
  7. ^ Ledur, Júlia (21 November 2022). "What Russia has gained and lost so far in Ukraine, visualized". The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  8. ^ Stepanenko, Kateryna; Kagan, Frederick W.; Lawlor, Katherine; Mappes, Grace; Bailey, Riley; Barros, George (30 September 2022). "Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, September 30". Institute for the Study of War. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  9. ^ Matsuzato, Kimitaka (2022). "The First Four Years of the Donetsk People's Republic". The War in Ukraine's Donbas. Central European University Press. pp. 43–66. doi:10.7829/j.ctv26jp68t.7. ISBN 9789633864203. S2CID 245630627. This state was born as a result of the extreme polarization of Ukrainian society, has survived the military conflict with its former suzerain (Ukraine), and, at a certain stage of state building, began to enjoy Russia's support.
  10. ^ Toal, Gerard (2017). Near Abroad : Putin, the West, and the contest over Ukraine and the Caucasus. New York. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-19-025331-8. OCLC 965543300. this does not mean that the Kremlin was behind all forms of protest against Euromaidan—this is clearly not the case—or that the Kremlin controlled the actions of all secessionist leaders, also clearly not so. Secessionist leaders and later rebel fighters had their own motivations. Having said that, there is considerable evidence to indicate that Russian state security structures worked in partnership with ostensibly private but functionally extended state networks of influence—oligarchic groups, veteran organizations, nationalist movements, biker gangs, and organized criminal networks—to encourage, support, and sustain separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine from the very outset.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ Bershidsky, Leonid (13 November 2018). "Eastern Ukraine: Why Putin Encouraged Sham Elections in Donbass". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  13. ^ von Twickel, Nikolaus; Sasse, Gwendolyn; Baumann, Mario (19 March 2018). "Russian Analytical Digest No 214: The Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine". css.ethz.ch. Retrieved 17 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Ukraine: UN General Assembly demands Russia reverse course on 'attempted illegal annexation'". The United Nations. 12 October 2022.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference bbc20221013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ 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.
  17. ^ Likhachev, Vyacheslav (July 2016). "The Far Right in the Conflict between Russia and Ukraine" (PDF). Russie.NEI.Visions in English. pp. 21–22. Retrieved 1 March 2022. Members of far-right groups played a much greater role on the Russian side of the conflict than on the Ukrainian side, especially at the beginning.
  18. ^ Bachelet, Michelle (5 July 2022). "Ukraine: High Commissioner updates Human Rights Council". Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (United Nations). Retrieved 6 February 2023. We are also concerned about confirmed allegations of forced conscription by Russian-affiliated armed groups at the end of February 2022, in Donetsk and Luhansk.
  19. ^ Corder, Mike; Casert, Raf (18 November 2022). "3 convicted in 2014 downing of Malaysian jet over Ukraine". Associated Press.
  20. ^ "Ukraine's prosecutor general classifies self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk republics as terrorist organizations". Kyiv Post. 16 May 2014. Archived from the original on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 18 February 2016.