Russian irredentism

state in the South Caucasus

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the existing war between the two countries that began when Russia attacked Ukraine in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties. As of April 2026, Russian troops occupy roughly 20% of Ukraine. From a population of 41 million, about 8 million Ukrainians have been internally displaced and 6–7 million have fled the country, creating Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Transnistria, officially known as the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic (PMR) and locally as Pridnestrovie, is a landlocked breakaway state internationally recognised as part of Moldova. It controls most of the narrow strip of land between the Dniester river and the Moldova–Ukraine border, as well as some land on the other side of the river's bank. Its capital and largest city is Tiraspol. Transnistria is officially designated by the Republic of Moldova as the Administrative-Territorial Units of the Left Bank of the Dniester () or as ("Left (Bank) of the Dniester").

The Russo-Ukrainian war began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia occupied Crimea and annexed it from Ukraine. It then supported Russian separatist armed groups who started a war in the eastern Donbas region against Ukraine's military. In 2018, Ukraine declared the region to be occupied by Russia. The first eight years of conflict also involved naval incidents and cyberwarfare. In February 2022, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and began occupying more of the country, starting the current phase of the war, the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II. The war has resulted in a refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands of deaths.

disputed Russian republic in eastern Ukraine

disputed Russian republic in eastern Ukraine

administrative division of Crimea

Putinist political party in Russia

annexation of Crimea into Russia in 2014

proposed merger of Donetsk and Lugansk People Republics that was never realized

Russian preparation for the invasion since March 2021

thumb|222px|A combination of Ribbon of Saint George|Saint George's ribbon and the letter Z, two symbols associated with Ruscism. The combination of these symbols has been compared to the Nazi swastika, and is sometimes called zwastika.

group of Russian regions

thumb|300px|Vladimir Putin at the party congress of [[United Russia in 2011]]

military symbol of the Russian armed forces and their sympathizers in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine

unrest in Ukraine in the aftermath of the Euromaidan movement

2022 annexation of areas in Ukraine

imperialist concept related to Russian cultural and political hegemony in Russian state ideology

self-declared Soviet republic of the Russian SFSR

2022 referendum in Russian-occupied Ukraine

self-declared and short-lived communist state

archaic name for a historical region in Belarus

short-lived Soviet republic

imperialism

Russian state-sponsored Internet commentators

Russian propaganda article, published by RIA Novosti on April 3, 2022, and regarded as Ukrainophobic publication

Donetsk status referendums, 2014

1990–present conflict between Moldova and its separatist region of Transnistria

irredentist claims to parts of the former Russian Empire or USSR made during the 21st century for the Russian Federation

ephemeral revolutionary state

political coalition in Russia started in 2011 by then-Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin to provide United Russia with "new ideas, new suggestions and new faces"

Russion culture foundation

Imperial and modern Russian irredentist ideology

21 February 2022 speech by Vladimir Putin

territories occupied by Russia

states established following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, as seen from a Russian perspective

Referendum in unrecognized state

proposed Russian annexation of part of Moldova

annexation of part of Georgia

Russian catchphrase

political bloc in Donetsk

Russian traditionalist-European political organization, the youth wing of the Eurasia Party

thumb|A Russian self-propelled gun captured during the Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present)|Russo-Ukrainian war with "Krym Nash" written on the side.

1920 proposal for a Soviet Union republic

social movement in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Ukraine

political movement in the Soviet Union and Ukraine