Offstream
news

The Russian-installed heads of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts' occupation administrations, as well as Leonid Pasechnik, leader of the breakaway Luhansk People's Republic, officially request that they be annexed to Russia, following a referendum, widely seen as fraudulent, conducted in those regions of Ukraine. Donetsk People's Republic's leader Denis Pushilin has not yet submitted such a request but has gone with Pasechnik to Moscow for talks about the annexation, and is expected to send a request shortly.
2022-09-28

According to the results released by Russian occupation authorities in Ukraine, the Donetsk People's Republic, the Luhansk People's Republic, as well as occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts overwhelmingly vote in favor of annexation, with 99.23%, 98.42%, 93.11% and 87.05% of support, respectively. Turnout exceeded 75% in each region and exceeded 97% in Donetsk Oblast. However, the voting has been widely dismissed as a sham referendum.
2022-09-27

Referendums begin in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia and the separatist republics of Donetsk and Luhansk on whether to join Russia, in what Ukraine and other countries consider to be "sham" referendums.
2022-09-23

North Korea recognizes the independence of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic, becoming the third nation to do so after Russia and Syria. Ukraine suspends relations with North Korea in response.
2022-07-13

Syria officially confirms its recognition of the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic, two breakaway states in southern Ukraine.
2022-06-29

In an interview with ABC News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukraine is open to holding discussions about the Russia-recognized Donetsk and Luhansk separatist regions in eastern Ukraine. He also concedes that his country may no longer be prepared to be accepted into NATO.
2022-03-8

DPR leader Alexander Zakharchenko announced that the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) would form a new state called Malorossiya (Little Russia) as an official successor to what he called the "failed state" of Ukraine, with Donetsk replacing Kiev as the country's capital. Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko and LPR leader Igor Plotnitsky denounced the plans.
2017-07-18

A Ukrainian court sentences two Russian nationals to 14 years in prison each on charges of fighting alongside Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Moscow contends that the two Russians were no longer employed by the state when they were captured.
2016-04-18

Luhansk People's Republic officials in Donetsk tell U.N. agencies and several other international NGOs to leave the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Despite the Minsk Protocol and Minsk II peace agreements low intensity fighting and shelling have continued non-stop in the region for over a year.
2015-09-24

Ukraine and pro-Russia rebels exchange nearly 370 prisoners in the largest such exchange since hostilities began in April this year.
2014-12-26