Flags used in Russian-occupied Ukraine

Pro-Russian protests in Donetsk on 7 April 2014. The DPR first flag variant is seen displayed amongst other flags such as the Russian, Belarusian and Donetsk Oblast ones.

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.[1] 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.[2][3]

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" (Russian: 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.

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  First flag of the Donetsk People's Republic, based on the political party Donetsk Republic[4][5]
• 
  First flag variant displayed on 7 April 2014
• 
  Alternative flag variant between April – June 2014
• 
  Second flag of the Donetsk People's Republic (October 2014 – 2017)[6]
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  Current flag of the Donetsk People's Republic[7]

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.

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  First flag of the Luhansk People's Republic displayed on 9 May 2014[8][9]
• 
  Variant of the first flag of the Luhansk People's Republic, used mostly by the Russian-controlled militant group before October 2014[10][11]
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  Second flag of the Luhansk People's Republic (October 2014 – 2017)[12][13]
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  Third flag of the Luhansk People's Republic (2017)
• 
  Current flag of the Luhansk People's Republic[14]

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.[15]

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  Flag of Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast
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  Coat of arms of Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast
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  Coat of arms used in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast until 30 September 2022

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.[16][17] 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.[18]

On 30 September, 2022, Russia declared the annexation of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, despite controlling only the southern part of it.[19] At a Moscow signing ceremony between Russian President Vladimir Putin and 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.[20]

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  Flag of Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast
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  Coat of arms of Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast
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  Coat of arms used in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast until 25 May 2022

• List of Russian flags
• Flags of the federal subjects of Russia