Anti-Terrorist Operation Zone (Ukrainian: Зона проведення антитерористичної операції, romanized: Zona provedennya antyterorystychnoyi operatsiyi), or ATO zone (Ukrainian: Зона АТО, romanized: Zona ATO), was a term used by the media, publicity, the government of Ukraine, and the OSCE and other foreign institutions to identify Ukrainian territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (oblasts) under the control of Russian military forces and pro-Russian separatists. A significant part of ATO zone is considered temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.
History
On 20 February 2018, Ukrainian PresidentPetro Poroshenko changed the status of the ATO zone from an anti-terrorist operation to "taking measures to ensure national security and defense, and repulsing and deterring the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts".
This allows the Ukrainian military to take charge of the zones instead of the Ukrainian secret service SBU. As such, the ATO was renamed to JFO zone (Joint Forces Operation (Ukrainian: Операція об'єднаних сил, ООС, romanized: Operatsiya ob'yednanykh syl).
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, out-of-service ATO veterans have repeatedly been the target of Russian forces, for example of the Redut PMC. According to captured fighters, with this they wanted to decrease the risk of them joining the defence of Ukraine. For this purpose, veterans were interrogated and tortured in order to find more, after which many were killed. Two Redut PMC fighters got convicted for committing such war crimes.
Military administrative division
The official borders of the ATO zone were defined with a list of localities and their geographical coordinates, approved in November 2014 by Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
The zone is conditionally divided into five sectors A, B, C, D, and M.
Sector C – northern parts of Donetsk Oblast (cities Bakhmut and Debaltseve), and western parts of Luhansk Oblast
Sector D – southern parts of Luhansk Oblast and eastern parts of Donetsk Oblast (after the 2014 Russian invasion on August 24, all Ukrainian forces were withdrawn)
Sector M – southern parts of Donetsk Oblast (around Mariupol, hence the sector's identification)
Influence in culture and society
Easter eggs from the ATO zone, 2017 - exhibit at the Pysanka Museum
Since 28 December 2015, the song "Brattia Ukraintsi" (Brothers Ukrainians) is the official anthem of ATO.
^Russia's official position on the presence of Russian forces in Ukraine's Donbas region prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine was vague: while official bodies denied presence of "regular armed forces" in Ukraine, on numerous occasions Russia confirmed the presence of "military specialists" and used other euphemisms, usually accompanied by an argument that Russia "was forced" to deploy them to "defend Russian-speaking population".
^The Interpreter quoted what Putin said during a live call-in session on 12 October 2016: "When we were forced, I want to stress, forced to defend the Russian-speaking population in the Donbas, forced to respond to the desire of the people living in Crimea to return to being part of the Russian Federation, they instantly began to whip up anti-Russian policies and the imposition of sanctions." "Putin Claims Russia Was 'Forced To Defend Russian-Speaking Population In Donbas'", The Interpreter, 12 October 2016, archived from the original on 23 February 2022, retrieved 8 January 2018
