Luhansk University

Luhansk University is a university located in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Founded in the Ukrainian SSR in 1921, it is the oldest university in the Donbas region. Since the start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, Luhansk University has de facto been split into two competing universities:

• the Ukraine-aligned Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University (Ukrainian: Луганський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка, romanized: Luhanskyy natsionalnyy universytet imeni Tarasa Shevchenka, Russian: Луганский национальный университет имени Тараса Шевченко, romanized: Lugansky natsionalny universitet imeni Tarasa Shevchenko), based in Poltava, Myrhorod and Lubny (Ukrainian-controlled campus); and
• the Russian Federation-aligned Luhansk State Pedagogical University (Russian: Луганский государственный педагогический университет, romanized: Lugansky gosudarstvenny pedagogichesky universitet), based in Luhansk (Russian-controlled campus).

Following the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine and the establishment of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), armed pro-Russian separatists took control of the city of Luhansk, including the original university campus, causing part of its students, personnel and administration to relocate to Ukrainian-controlled areas and re-establish the campus of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University there. The Luhansk campus continued to operate under LPR, and later direct Russian control, and was renamed to Luhansk State Pedagogical University in 2020. The Ukrainian-aligned university was forced to move to Ukraine-controlled Starobilsk, and due to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was later relocated to Poltava, Myrhorod, and Lubny.