The Russian Defence Ministry has claimed to have taken full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, in a move that has pushed Russia a step closer to seizing the coveted industrial heartland it has cited as a war objective since 2022.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ministry said that the military grouping called Units of the ‘West’ has completed the liberation of the “Luhansk People’s Republic,” Moscow’s preferred name for the Ukrainian region.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces have also captured the village of Verkhnya Pysarivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, as well as Boikove in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Kyiv should have withdrawn from the Donbas “yesterday” to end the “hot phase” of the war, and reiterated Moscow’s demand that Ukraine relinquish control of the entire region as a condition for any ceasefire.
Luhansk and Donetsk together form the broader Donbas region. Russia has long controlled over 99 per cent of Luhansk, which was among the four Ukrainian regions it annexed in 2022, and it currently holds roughly three-quarters of Donetsk.
Ukraine denies capture
The spokesperson for Ukraine’s Joint Forces grouping, Viktor Trehubov, said there were no changes to report in that region.
“Unfortunately, we only hold small patches there (in Luhansk), but those positions have been held by 3rd brigade for a long time,” Trehubov told The Associated Press by phone.
Ukrainian officials have in the past said that Moscow makes false claims of advances to persuade US negotiators that a Russian victory in Ukraine is inevitable.
Russian jet crash
A Russian military plane crashed in Crimea on Wednesday, killing 29 people on board, the country’s defence ministry has said.
According to the Russian news agency Tass, the wreckage of the An-26 aircraft was found in Crimea after it lost contact with authorities during a “routine flight.”
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