Russia says it now has full control over eastern Ukraine
Ukraine’s last stronghold of Lysychansk was taken over by Russian soldiers and their allies on Sunday, but the country has yet to comment after intense fighting was reported there. Russia announced its forces and their allies have taken control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk area.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24 was blocked by fierce Ukrainian defense, Moscow switched its attention to establishing full control of the eastern Donbas provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Since Russia’s initial military incursion in Ukraine in 2014, separatists backed by Moscow have been fighting in the area.
President Vladimir Putin was notified by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who declared Luhansk had been “liberated.” Russia had earlier claimed that its forces had conquered areas surrounding Lysychansk and surrounded the city.
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According to the minister, Russian soldiers and their allies in the Lysychansk area have “taken full control” of the city.
There was no quick response from Ukraine’s military to questions about the conflict in Ukraine. Officials in Ukraine, who claim that Russian war propaganda refers to “liberating” Ukrainian territory, have reported heavy artillery barrages on civilian areas.
Based on footage showing Russian forces strolling casually around Lysychansk’s northeastern and eastern neighborhoods, they concluded that there were either no Ukrainian military left or a very small number of them present. An official report stated the footage includes photos shared on social media that were geolocated to show where it was shot.
More than a thousand people have been killed and entire cities have been leveled since Russia invaded Ukraine. However, this is denied by Moscow.
In Ukraine, Russia is conducting what it calls a “special military operation” to shield Russian speakers from anti-Russian sentiment. Ukrainians and their Western backers claim that this is a bogus justification for Ukraine’s brazen aggression, which wants to take territory.
In Mykolaiv, a town near the Black Sea port of Odesa, the mayor reported Saturday hearing several loud explosions. This is siginificantly far from the frontlines of the conflict in the east, but it is also close to another front in the south.
