Donetsk’s People’s Republic and Lugansk People’s Republic are two breakaway regions of Ukraine that are pro-Russia and border each other which proclaimed independence in April last year, although Lugansk was about three weeks behind Donetsk. How come two states were declared and not one? I know that more recently there was talk of a confederation called Novorossiya but that is apparently now dead in the water.
Bump
I would have assumed that it was because these are/were already administrative divisions of the Ukraine, and it is easier to separate by declaring “this already existing region is now independent”, which means the already-existing administrative structures no long listen to the top-level government but nothing else changes – rather than “these two regions have decided to break off together”, which means they have to coordinate and form a new top-level government themselves.