Flags used in Russian-occupied Ukraine

This is a list article about flags that have been used by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine and in areas occupied by Russia and Russian-controlled forces during the Russo-Ukrainian War.

Donetsk People's Republic


The flag of the Donetsk People's Republic was claimed by the Russian-controlled militias to be based on the flag of the Donetsk–Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic, whom they claim as the "People's Republic's" predecessor. However, there is no evidence of any such flag in 1918, and it is most likely based on the flag of the International Movement of Donbass, a Soviet anti-Ukrainian independence organisation started at Donetsk University in August 1989.

The original DPR flag also featured a coat of arms of the republic that said "Donetsk Rus'" (Донецкая Русь) in the centre. It was identical to the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk Republic political party flag, while also retaining the words "Donetsk Republic" (Донецкая Республика). A simpler white double-headed eagle variant was used by pro-Russian protesters since 7 April 2014 and then by separatists of the Donbas People's Militia.

By October 2014, a second main flag which carried the words "Donetsk People's Republic" (Донецкая Народная Республика) was created with an updated doubled-headed eagle that looked less similar to the Russian coat of arms. This flag appeared to be more prominently used by the militant organization, even appearing on ballot boxes during their 2014 elections. The simplified black, blue and red tricolor without inscriptions or coats of arms started being adopted after 2017.

Luhansk People's Republic
There have been several flags used to represent the Luhansk People's Republic. The first flag featured a similar design to the flag used by the Donetsk People's Republic, the main differences being that the top stripe was light blue or azure, a color used in the 1950–1992 flag of the Ukrainian SSR, instead of black. It featured a different coat of arms, and it contained the words Luhansk Republic (Луганская Республика) in Russian. The original shade of light blue used for the top stripe may have been inspired by the shade of blue used in the flag of the city of Luhansk. The second was adopted at some point in October 2014, with an abbreviation of the group's local name replacing the aforementioned text. On 2 November 2014, the Republic adopted a new flag that resembled the previous flags but lacked the coat of arms.

Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast
Russia initially occupied much of Kherson Oblast in early 2022, but was forced to retreat from the right bank of the Dnieper River, giving up the city of Kherson in November.

At the signing of the agreement on the accession of the Kherson Oblast to Russia by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of the region, Volodymyr Saldo, the flag of Kherson Oblast was seen, but in the middle of white stripe, there is the 1803 coat of arms of Kherson supported by golden oak branches and blue ribbons, and surmounted by the Imperial Crown.

Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast
Russia occupies the southern half of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast as of 2023.

In the early months of the occupation, the coat of arms used by the occupational forces was originally a re-worded version of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Though on 25 May 2022, it was replaced by the 1811 coat of arms of the city of Zaporizhzhia (then called Oleksandrivsk in Ukrainian or Aleksandrovsk in Russian), which was again adopted by the city in 2003, with the magenta color associated with Cossacks replaced with red due to "historical" reasons.

On 30 September 2022, Russia declared the annexation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, despite controlling only the southern part of it. At a Moscow signing ceremony between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian-installed head of the occupied southern half of the oblast, Yevhen Balytskyi, the flag of the Zaporizhzhia region was presented as a bi-color field in green and red, and the 1811 coat of arms of Aleksandrovsk (Zaporizhzhia at the time) in the middle. The bicolor of green and red is similar to the flags of Belarus, Burkina Faso and the the Comoros under socialism from 1975–1978 albeit inverted.

Kharkiv People's Republic
The Kharkiv People's Republic (Russian: Харьковская Народная Республика) was a short-lived self-proclaimed state in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It was declared by separatists during the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine. The separatists were led by Yevhen Zhylin. It was created on 7 April 2014 when pro-Russian protesters stormed government buildings in Kharkiv and declared the Kharkiv People's Republic. It was dissolved when Ukrainian authorities regained control of the building later that same day. The 2014 flag was similar in appearance to the current flag of Dagestan.

Novorossiya
Novorossiya (literally "New Russia") was an unrecognised confederation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, claiming the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. However, on 20 May 2015, the leaders of the Federal State of Novorossiya declared that they would halt the confederation 'project.'

The battle flag is based on the naval jack of the Imperial Russian Navy. Oleksandr Chalenko, who worked as a political journalist in Kyiv, described the flag and explained its symbolism in an item published by Izvestia on 20 March 2014: "It's a red flag with a blue Saint Andrew's cross. The flag of the Russian Navy. Of the Navy, which played a prominent military role in the emergence and establishment of historical Novorossiya."

A white-yellow-black tricolor was presented on 13 August 2014 by Oleg Tsaryov as a potential flag for the confederation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. This resembled an upside-down Romanov flag, which was the national flag of the Russian Empire from 1858 to 1883.

Some have noted that the flag's design resembles the Confederate States of America's Navy jack and battle flag, known also as the "Dixie flag", though this is almost certainly a coincidence. Ukrainian political analyst Mikhail Pavliv is credited with having created the flag; Pavliv explains that he had simply stumbled upon the flag online somewhere, and that the leader of the New Russia Party, Pavel Gubarev, later picked it up. However, Gubarev has stated that the inspiration for the flag came from banners used by Cossacks in the 18th century. The only Cossacks that used a similar banner where the Semirechye Cossacks from Kyrgyzstan who never saw combat or service in or near Ukraine.