Flag of Novorossiya: Difference between revisions

There are numerous flags used in areas of Ukraine that have been occupied by Russia or controlled by pro-Russian forces during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War.

A white-yellow-black tricolor was presented on 13 August 2014 by Oleg Tsarev as a potential state flag.^{[1][2][better source needed]} This resembled an upside-down Romanov flag, which was the national flag of the Russian Empire from 1858 to 1883.

Novorossiya is an unrecognised confederation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, claiming the territory of the respective Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. On 20 May 2015 the leadership of the Federal State of Novorossiya announced the 'freezing' of the confederation 'project'.^[3]

The battle flag is based on the naval jack of the Imperial Russian Navy. Oleksandr Chalenko, who worked as a political journalist in Kiev, described the flag and explained its symbolism in an item published by Izvestia on 20 March 2014:^[4]

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.

On 15 May 2014 the Russian on-line newspaper Vzglyad noted that the then Governor of the Donetsk People's Republic, Pavel Gubarev, had announced the start of voting for a flag of the proposed state of Novorossiya.^[5]

Following the proposition of the white-yellow-black tricolour as the national flag, the saltire was then adopted as the battle flag of the republic,^[6] while a variant with the coat of arms is in use as de facto national flag since.

• 
  Flag of Novorossiya
• 
  Battle flag
• 
  War Flag of Novorossiya (Variant)

Not much is known^{[by whom?]} about the flags of 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 1950–1992 flag of Ukraine during Soviet rule, instead of black, it featured a different coat of arms, and it contained the words "Lugansk 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 state'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 and had a brighter red stripe.^{[citation needed]}

• 
  First flag of the Luhansk People's Republic displayed on 9 May 2014^[7][8]
• 
  Variant of the first flag of the Luhansk People's Republic, used mostly by the state before October 2014^[9][10]
• 
  Second flag of the Luhansk People's Republic (October 2014 – 2017)^[11][12]
• 
  Third flag of the Luhansk People's Republic (2017)
• 
  Current flag of the Luhansk People's Republic^[13]

Colors

The colors of the flag of the Luhansk People's Republic are determined by the "Law on the State Flag of the Luhansk People's Republic".^[14]

Colors scheme	Azure	Blue	Red
CMYK	60-21-0-0	100-65-0-34	0-100-100-5
HEX	#64C8FF	#0039A6	#F00000
RGB	100-200-255	0-57-166	240-0-0

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".^[15][16] 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. According to Alexey Eremenko of The Moscow Times, no Cossacks ever used a flag resembling the one chosen.^[17] However, vexillologically, the flag is a combination of the flag of the Semirechye Cossacks and the St. Andrew's Flag.

• List of Russian navy flags

• Novorossiya Republic at Flags of the World