This coin from the Lugansk region (also known as Luhansk) commemorates the 50th anniversary of the creation of the greater Donbass region (or Donbasskiy Kray). The Donbass region combines three oblasts (provinces or regions) in the east of Ukraine: easternmost part of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, northern and central part of Donetsk Oblast and southern part of Lugansk Oblast.
Donbass is economically, historically and culturally regarded as a supranational region, as it also consists of a part of neighbouring Rostov Oblast in Russia, although this conceptual extension of the region to include the Russian section of it has been somehow abandoned after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Many inhabitants of Donbass have a strong attachment to the region and see themselves first and foremost as Donbassers.