Russia has taken full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk Region — Official

Russia has taken full control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, according to a Russian-installed official.

The announcement comes more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

Luhansk, covering 26,700 square kilometers (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall entirely under Russia’s established control since the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-backed head of the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic,” told Russian state television:
“The territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic is fully liberated – 100%.”

Pasechnik, who was born in Soviet Ukraine, made the statement without immediate confirmation from Russia’s defense ministry.

Ukraine has not commented yet.

Putin declared in September 2022 that Luhansk — along with parts of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia — was being incorporated into Russia.

Western governments said the move was illegal. Most of the international community does not recognize Russia’s claims.

Ukraine insists that Russia’s actions are groundless and unlawful.

Kyiv has vowed never to recognize Russian sovereignty over any of its territory.

Russia, on the other hand, claims these areas are now part of its country.

Moscow says they fall under its nuclear protection and will never be returned.

Luhansk has changed hands throughout history.

It was once part of the Russian Empire before the Red Army took it in 1920.

By 1922, it had become part of the Soviet Union as a section of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The region, along with Donetsk, was a key battleground after Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution in 2014.

Following the ousting of a pro-Russian president in Kyiv and the annexation of Crimea, Russian-backed separatists began fighting Ukrainian forces in both areas.

Russia now controls about 19% of territory recognized internationally as Ukrainian.

This includes full control of Luhansk, over 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, and parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

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