As of September 2024, Ukraine is in control of 1.5% of the region,[10] including a few settlements, such as Hrekivka and Nadiia.

The region is located in the valley of the Siversky Donets river, which flows west to east through the oblast and splits it approximately in half.

The territory was formerly part of the Wild Fields, and former administrative units in the territory of the current oblast included Sloboda Ukraine, Slavo-Serbia, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Donets Governorate and Donetsk Oblast.

After the invasion by Nazi Germany in 1941, the region came under a German military administration, due to its proximity to frontlines.

It was occupied at the end of 1942 as part of Case Blue German offensive directed towards Stalingrad.

In the December 1991 referendum, 83.86% of votes in the oblast were in favor of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine.

On 8 April 2014, following the annexation of Crimea by Russia, pro-Russian separatists occupying the Luhansk Oblast administrative building planned to declare the independence of the region as the Luhansk Parliamentary Republic,[clarification needed] after other pro-Russian separatists declared Donetsk People's Republic in the Donetsk Oblast (7 April 2014).

Many universities located in the occupied areas have moved to government-controlled cities such as Sievierodonetsk, Starobilsk or Rubizhne.

[citation needed] On 4–5 July 2022, during the international Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2022) in Lugano, Finland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic pledged to support the postwar rebuilding of the Luhansk region.

[21] Following the staged victory in the voting, the region and the so-called Luhansk People's Republic were absorbed into Russia.

[22] The United Nations General Assembly subsequently passed a resolution calling on countries not to recognise what it described as an "attempted illegal annexation" and demanded that Russia "immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw".

[29] On 4 September, Ukrainian forces launched a counteroffensive in eastern Ukraine and recaptured small parts of Donetsk Oblast and, on 1 October, Lyman.

Since then, there has been continued fighting in the western parts of the region in a renewed Luhansk Oblast campaign.

[citation needed] Like the other provinces of Ukraine, Luhansk Oblast has a double jurisdiction.

The province has a representative body, the provincial council, which is headed by its chairman and elected by popular vote.

Ethnic Russians also constitute the majority in regionally significant cities, such as Krasnodon, Sverdlovsk, Khrustalnyi and Kadiivka.

The Luhansk Oblast rates fifth in Ukraine by the number of its inhabitants, having an average population density of 90.28/km2.