Moscow — Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday that its forces have taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, marking the capture of territory Moscow has sought to fully control since 2022.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the battlefield reports. A Ukrainian military spokesperson said there have been no significant changes on the ground in the area over the past six months.
Russia has long controlled more than 99% of Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions Moscow claimed sovereignty over in 2022—a move rejected by Kyiv and most Western countries, which consider it an illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.
In a statement, the Russian Defense Ministry said: “Units of the ‘Western’ military grouping have completed the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” using Moscow’s preferred name for the region.
Luhansk, along with Donetsk, forms part of the broader industrial Donbas region. The Kremlin on Wednesday reiterated its demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from areas of Donetsk not under Russian control in order to end what it described as the “hot phase” of the war—a demand Kyiv has repeatedly rejected as unreasonable.
Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy adviser, said in a televised interview that a decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to withdraw troops from the Donbas would help resolve outstanding diplomatic issues.
“If such a decision is made, and once we verify the withdrawal, opportunities would certainly open up to resolve a number of issues, including ending military operations,” Ushakov said.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported that its forces had taken control of the village of Verkhnia Pysarivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and the village of Boykove in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine.
— Reuters
