Donetsk People's Republic
The Donetsk People's Republic is an internationally unrecognized republic of Russia, comprising the occupied parts of eastern Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, with its capital in Donetsk. The DPR was created by Russian-backed paramilitaries in 2014, and it initially operated as a breakaway state until it was annexed by Russia in 2022.
Ukrainian riot police guarding the entrance to the RSA building on 7 March 2014
Ukrainian military roadblocks in Donetsk oblast on 8 May 2014
Pro-Russian separatists occupying the Donetsk RSA building on 7 April 2014
Sloviansk city council under the control of heavily armed men on 14 April 2014
The republics are one type of federal subject of the Russian Federation.
21 republics are internationally recognized as part of Russia; another is under its de facto control. The original republics were created as nation states for ethnic minorities. The indigenous ethnicity that gives its name to the republic is called the titular nationality. However, due to centuries of Russian migration, a titular nationality may not be a majority of its republic's population.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on the incorporation of Tuva into the Soviet Union as an autonomous oblast, 11 October 1944. Tuva would not become an ASSR until 1961.
Republics of the Soviet Union in 1954–1991
A Chechen fighter near the burned-out presidential palace during the battle of Grozny, January 1995. The building became a symbol of resistance for the supporters of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Vladimir Putin with local people in the Siberian republic of Tuva, 2007