SUMMARY
LPR (Lugansk People’s Republic) was a Russian-backed separatist movement active in Eastern Ukraine. It originated in a series of pro-Russian and "anti-Maidan" rallies organized throughout Luhansk and neighboring provinces in March-April 2014. These rallies condemned the removal of the Eastern-Ukraine, pro-Russian backed Yanukovich cabinet as a coup, labeling the new authorities as fascist. In April 2014 they developed into several armed separatist movements, of which the LPR and Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) were the only ones to prove significant, occupying large portions Luhansk and Donetsk Oblasts respectively.
On 16 September 2014, a union between the armed forces of LPR and DPR was announced as part of the larger Novorossiya project. The new group - the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya - had a new incompatibility for a larger territory than Donetsk and Lugansk Oblast combined, referred to as Novorossiya. The Novorossiya project was "put on hold" in May 2015, and on 9 June the DPR and LPR became de facto independent actors again, but with the new incompatibility for the Novorossiya area. As such, they exist in the data as new entities separate from the groups with the same names which were active in 2014, in the territorial conflicts of Donetsk and Lugansk respectively, prior to their merger (see the old DPR and old LPR).
LPR controlled significant portions of the Luhanska Oblast, with approximately 1.5 million people under its de facto governance. LPR functioned as an unrecognized proto-state, and its leadership structure reflects this. The head of state since November 2017 is Leonid Pasechnik, who came to office following a coup by the interior minister Igor Kornet, after ousting the former head of state Igor Plotnisky. Pasechnik was viewed as being more in favor of reaching a peace accord with Ukraine than his more hardline predecessor, and the coup is believed to have had the backing of both DPR and Russia. This was the latest in several coups and coup-attempts which has rocked the break-away republic since its inception. LPR has since the dissolution of the United Armed Forces of Novorossiya remained allied with the larger and more active DPR. Both groups have officially been under a ceasefire agreement with the Government of Ukraine since the May 2015 Minsk II agreement, though fighting has continued throughout the existence of LPR and DPR (for more on the conflict, see Ukraine: Novorossiya).
LPR has received substantial help from Russia. Accusations of Russia supplying rebels with firepower, machinery and even troops came from multiple sources, including NATO (who released images proving this fact), Ukraine (who captured a detachment of Russian paratroopers), Russian NGOs and even parts of the Russian government (the Russian Presidential Committee for Human Rights). Most of the government of Russia, however, while admitting to providing "humanitarian aid", including monetary support for LPR, and supporting its cause politically, refused to acknowledge any troops were sent under official qualities to Ukraine. Russia, however, admitted that volunteer detachments, including numerous members of the armed forces officially "on leave" were fighting in Ukraine; those Russian servicemen killed in Ukraine were given state funerals on return. Russia is therefore coded as a secondary warring party for LPR in the Ukraine:Novorossiya conflict against the government of Ukrainian. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the Russian military had full command of the LPR's forces, and the Novorossiya conflict was thus superseded by the Russian - Ukraine conflict. Luhansk was formally annexed by Russia on 30 September 2022.
