Russia has full control of Lugansk republic – governor
The Russian military has taken control of the entirety of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), local governor Leonid Pasechnik announced on Monday.
The governor made the remarks while speaking live on Russia’s Channel One.
“Just two days ago, a report came in that the territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic had been fully liberated, 100%,” Pasechnik stated.
The Russian Defense Ministry has made no official announcement on the LPR governor’s claim.
The Russian military liberated the two largest cities in the region controlled by Ukraine, Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, during the summer offensive of 2022. Shortly after, it gained control of their hinterlands, with the front line largely remaining static in the LPR since then.
Kiev’s military had retained control over some 100 square kilometers in the northwest of the LPR, including a patch of land to the north of the town of Makeevka, dotted by a handful of villages, now abandoned and destroyed.
Kiev has also long-held the Serebryanskoye forestry, a wooded area to the north of the Seversky Donets river, which separates the LPR from its sister republic of Donetsk.
The forestry has long seen fierce trench warfare, with either side of the conflict unable to make any tangible gains in the area for months.
