Moscow, Russia. Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield report, and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine.
Claim of full control in Luhansk
The Defence Ministry said “units of the ‘West’ military grouping have completed the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” using Moscow’s preferred name for the region. The statement suggested Russian forces had taken control of a small sliver of land that had remained beyond their reach since 2022.
More than 99% of Luhansk, one of four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed as its own in 2022, has long been under Russian control. Kyiv and most Western countries have rejected Russia’s claims as an illegal land grab.
Donbas and Kremlin demand
Luhansk and Donetsk make up the wider industrialised Donbas area. The Kremlin reiterated its demand that Ukrainian forces withdraw from the part of Donetsk that Moscow does not control to end what it called the “hot phase” of the war, a demand Kyiv has repeatedly dismissed.
Additional battlefield claims
Russia’s Defence Ministry also said its forces had taken control of the village of Verkhnya Pysarivka in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and of Boikove in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine. Reuters could not independently verify those assertions.
How do you think Ukraine and its partners will respond to Russia’s latest claims about territorial control?
