Latest news with #LuhanskRegion
Al Jazeera
a day ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia says it controls Luhansk as US halts some weapons pledged to Ukraine
The Russian occupation governor of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region claimed it had been entirely conquered on Tuesday, making it the first of the four eastern Ukrainian regions Russia has annexed that it fully controls. 'Just a couple of days ago, I received a report that the territory of the Luhansk People's Republic has been 100 percent liberated,' Leonid Pasechnik told Russia's TV Channel One. Not everyone agreed. Russian military reporters said two villages remained free, and pointed out that Luhansk had been declared conquered once before, in 2022, before being partially reclaimed in a Ukrainian counteroffensive in September of that year. Undoubtedly, though, Russian forces have inched towards reconquering the entire territory in the intervening 33 months, and that constitutes a second milestone within the past month on Ukraine's eastern front. Russia's advance dealt another blow to Ukraine, more than three years after the full-scale invasion began. On the same day as Pasechnik's announcement, the United States said it would not be sending Kyiv some weapons that had been promised by the administration of Joe Biden, the former US president. 'This decision was made to put America's interests first following a review of our nation's military support and assistance to other countries across the globe,' said the White House. Russian troops reached the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region over the weekend of June 7-8, marking the first time in the war they had conquered the entire breadth of the Donetsk region at any point, even though about a third of it remains in Kyiv's hands. These milestones may be strategically meaningless, as they do not mark a breakthrough or a pace change in the Russian forces' crawling advance, but they demonstrate that Ukrainian forces are also unable to turn the tide. The Russian Ministry of Defence claimed its forces had taken the villages of Zaporizhzhia, Perebudova, Shevchenko and Yalta in Donetsk on June 27, proceeding to Chervona Zirka the following day and Novoukrainka on Sunday. Through such small but constant conquests, Russia has given its offensive in Ukraine an inexorable feeling. The buffer bluff 'Naturally, the Russian armed forces are now tasked to continue operations to establish a buffer zone. According to experts, it should stretch at least 70 to 120 kilometres (40 to 75 miles) deep inside Ukraine,' Igor Korotchenko, the editor of National Defense magazine, told TASS. Such statements have come before from Russian officials and pro-Moscow pundits. Last March, when Russian forces recaptured Kursk, a Russian region Ukraine had counter-invaded, battalion deputy commander Oleg Ivanov told TASS it was now necessary to create a buffer zone 'no less than 20km [12 miles] wide, and preferably 30km [19 miles], extending deep into Ukrainian territory,' so that residents of Kursk would be safe from Ukrainian counterattack. In May, deputy chairman of Russia's National Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that 'if military aid to the regime of bandits continues', referring to Kyiv, 'the buffer zone could look like this' – and he posted a map on his Telegram channel, showing almost all of Ukraine shaded. When Russian troops reached the Dnipropetrovsk border last month, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said they had begun new offensive operations in that region 'within the framework of the creation of a buffer zone'. Officially, the Kremlin has annexed only Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, but given that Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 20 revealed he still regarded all of Ukraine as Russian territory, many experts believe these buffer zones are little more than an excuse to continue capturing as much Ukrainian territory as possible. On June 27, Putin referred to his goals more cryptically, telling journalists at the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Minsk that 'we want to conclude the special military operation with the result that we need'. In May, he called for a buffer zone between Russia and Ukraine on Ukrainian territory, leaving it to his lieutenants to define it. One general thought it should comprise six Ukrainian territories, and legislators in the Russian Duma backed him. On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine was withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. The move would allow Ukraine to manufacture, stockpile and use such mines to defend itself. 'Antipersonnel mines … very often have no alternative as a tool for defence,' Zelenskyy said. Ukraine strikes back Ukraine continued to score tactical successes of its own inside Russia, using long-range weapons. On Friday and Saturday, June 27-28, Ukrainian drones struck the Kirovske airfield. The Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) said it was behind the attack and claimed to have destroyed at least three attack helicopters. Also last week, Ukraine's General Staff said an aerial attack had destroyed at least four Sukhoi-34 fighters at Russia's Marinovka airbase. Russia uses the fighters to drop glide bombs on the Ukrainian front lines. Intelligence sources reported that Ukraine may have destroyed a Russian intelligence base in the Bryansk region on June 26. 'Russia is investing in its unmanned capabilities. Russia is planning to increase the number of drones used in strikes against our state,' Zelenskyy said on June 30. The previous day, Russia had conducted the largest unmanned air strike of the war so far, sending 447 drones and 90 missiles into Ukrainian cities. Ukraine's air force said it had shot down or electronically suppressed all but one of the drones and 38 missiles. The increase in scale and intensity of Russian unmanned air attacks this year, and particularly since bilateral talks between the warring sides resumed in May, have led Ukrainian military experts to conclude that Moscow is marking Ukrainian territory it intends to launch a ground war against. 'We are not talking about the front lines. We are talking actually about [rear] areas and even the residential areas of Ukraine, so not so-called red line cities or communities but actually yellow cities and communities, which means slightly farther from the red line zones,' Cambridge University Centre for Geopolitics expert Victoria Vdovychenko told Al Jazeera. When Zelenskyy spoke on Monday, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul visited Kyiv for the first time. Zelenskyy said most of the nine billion euros ($11bn) in military aid Germany has promised this year would go towards the 'strategic objective' of launching 'systematic production of air defence systems'. He had elaborated on what that meant last week, when he said he was 'scaling up Ukraine's potential, particularly regarding interceptors', the missiles used to target incoming missiles. 'The scale of our production and the pace of drone development must be fully aligned with the conditions of the war,' he said. Russian attacks have been increasing in scale, and Zelenskyy meant that Ukraine had to keep up in its defensive response. Regarding drones, he said on Monday, 'The priority is drones, interceptor drones and long-range strike drones.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia takes full control of Ukraine's Luhansk region, Russian-backed official says
MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has taken full control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television. Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Putin in September 2022 declared that Luhansk - along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions - was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognise. "The territory of the Luhansk People's Republic is fully liberated - 100%," Leonid Pasechnik, who was born in Soviet Ukraine and is now a Russian-installed official cast by Moscow as the head of the "Luhansk People's Republic", told Russian state television. There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian defence ministry, or comment from Ukraine. Ukraine says that Russia's claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal, and Kyiv has promised to never recognise Russian sovereignty over the areas. Russia says the territories are now part of Russia, fall under its nuclear umbrella and will never be returned. Luhansk was once part of the Russian empire but changed hands after the Russian Revolution. It was taken by the Red Army in 1920 and then became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Along with neighbouring Donetsk, Luhansk was the crucible of the conflict which began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces in both Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia controls nearly 19% of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine, including Luhansk, plus over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
South China Morning Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Moscow-appointed leader says Russia has full control of Ukraine's Luhansk region
A Russia-appointed official in Ukraine's occupied Luhansk region said Monday that Moscow's forces have overrun all of it – one of four regions Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in September 2022 despite not fully controlling a single one. If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully occupied by Russia after more than three years of war and as recent US-led international peace efforts have failed to make progress on halting the fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire and has not budged from his demands, which include Moscow's control over the four illegally annexed regions. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the claim made by the Moscow-installed leader of the occupied region, Leonid Pasechnik. In remarks to Russia's state TV Channel One that aired Monday evening, Pasechnik said he received a report 'literally two days ago' saying that '100 per cent' of the region was now under the control of Russian forces.
Arab News
3 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Russia takes full control of Ukraine's Luhansk region, Russian backed official says
MOSCOW: Russia has taken full control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television. Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Putin in September 2022 declared that Luhansk — along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognize. 'The territory of the Luhansk People's Republic is fully liberated — 100 percent,' Leonid Pasechnik, who was born in Soviet Ukraine and is now a Russian-installed official cast by Moscow as the head of the 'Luhansk People's Republic,' told Russian state television. There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian defense ministry, or comment from Ukraine. Ukraine says that Russia's claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognized to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal, and Kyiv has promised to never recognize Russian sovereignty over the areas. Russia says the territories are now part of Russia, fall under its nuclear umbrella and will never be returned. Luhansk was once part of the Russian empire but changed hands after the Russian Revolution. It was taken by the Red Army in 1920 and then became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Along with neighboring Donetsk, Luhansk was the crucible of the conflict which began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces in both Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia controls nearly 19 percent of what is internationally recognized to be Ukraine, including Luhansk, plus over 70 percent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Russia takes full control of Ukraine's Luhansk region, Russian-backed official says
MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Russia has taken full control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television. Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Putin in September 2022 declared that Luhansk - along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions - was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognise. "The territory of the Luhansk People's Republic is fully liberated - 100%," Leonid Pasechnik, who was born in Soviet Ukraine and is now a Russian-installed official cast by Moscow as the head of the "Luhansk People's Republic", told Russian state television. There was no immediate confirmation from the Russian defence ministry, or comment from Ukraine. Ukraine says that Russia's claims to Luhansk and other areas of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine are groundless and illegal, and Kyiv has promised to never recognise Russian sovereignty over the areas. Russia says the territories are now part of Russia, fall under its nuclear umbrella and will never be returned. Luhansk was once part of the Russian empire but changed hands after the Russian Revolution. It was taken by the Red Army in 1920 and then became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Along with neighbouring Donetsk, Luhansk was the crucible of the conflict which began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces in both Luhansk and Donetsk. Russia controls nearly 19% of what is internationally recognised to be Ukraine, including Luhansk, plus over 70% of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, and fragments of the Kharkiv, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
