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Putin’s forces claim to have control of Luhansk region that was illegally annexed in 2022
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Russia claims its forces have occupied the whole of illegally-annexed Luhansk, which would make it the only Ukrainian region to have fallen in its entirety more than three years after Vladimir Putin launched his invasion.
Leonid Pasechnik, the Moscow-installed leader of the occupied region, said he received a report “two days ago” saying that “100 per cent of the region was now under the control of Russian forces”. Kyiv has yet to comment on the claim.
Luhansk was among the first regions to see a major Russian advance at the start of the war, but Ukraine has consistently been able to keep hold of small slivers of the largely industrial region. Russia claims to have annexed it in its entirety alongside four other regions which it only controls in part, and their fate is expected to form a key element of peace talks to end the war.
Elsewhere on the frontline, the Ukrainian military said it had begun pushing back Russian troops in the northeastern Sumy region, where it is preparing a counteroffensive following advances by 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 recognise.
“The territory of the Luhansk People’s Republic is fully liberated – 100 per cent,” 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.
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.
US President Donald Trump’s senior envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, said on Monday that Russia cannot continue to stall for time “while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine”.
“We urge an immediate ceasefire and a move to trilateral talks to end the war,” Mr Kellogg wrote on X.
Volodymyr Zelensky says Vladimir Putin has spent the first six months of the year stalling against a ceasefire or peace.
“Putin has already stolen practically half a year from diplomacy — another half a year — on top of the entire duration of this war,” he said on X.
“Russia is not changing its plans and is not looking for a way out of this war. On the contrary, they are preparing for new operations, including on the territory of European countries. That’s their principle, the Russians look for where to exploit a weakness.
He continued: “They must see that there is the wherewithal to stop them everywhere. Therefore, more of our joint production, more resilience, more coordination and efficiency of our common security architecture in Europe.”
Russia destroyed 60 Ukrainian drones overnight, according to the Russian defence ministry.
Russia’s air defence units took the drones down over regions in southwest Russia and over the Crimean Peninsula, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, it said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was seen draping coffins with the national flag in what appeared to be the repatriation of soldiers killed fighting for Russia against Ukraine, photos released by its state media showed.
In photos published from a gala performance, Mr Kim is seen standing by half a dozen coffins, covering them with North Korean flags and pausing briefly with both hands resting on them.
The North Korean leader in some pictures seems overcome with emotion, and audience members can be seen wiping away tears.
North Korea and Russia are marking the first anniversary of their landmark strategic defence partnership treaty, with Pyongyang hosting Russia’s culture minister Olga Lyubimova.
Russia has significantly ramped up its drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks in a move that is designed to squeeze Ukraine into submission, according to Washington-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.
“Russia is continuing to use increasingly large numbers of drones in its overnight strike packages in order to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences and enable subsequent cruise and ballistic missile strikes,” the Washington-based think tank said late on Sunday.
“The increases in Russia’s strike packages in recent weeks are largely due to Russia’s efforts to scale up its defence industrial production, particularly of Shahed and decoy drones and ballistic missiles,” the institute added.
Russia has ramped up its overnight aerial attacks targeting civilian areas of Ukrainian cities in the past few weeks.
Over the weekend, Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine, officials said, in an escalating bombing campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace efforts.
Ukraine’s air force yesterday said it detected 107 Russian Shahed and decoy drones in the country’s air space overnight.
Russian forces have reportedly seized their first village in Ukraine’s east-central Dnipropetrovsk region, according to Russian state media and war bloggers, marking a new advance in the ongoing conflict.
There has been no immediate confirmation from Ukrainian sources or the Russian defence ministry regarding the claim.
Russia’s state RIA news agency quoted pro-Russian official Vladimir Rogov as stating that Russian forces had taken control of the village of Dachnoye, located just inside the Dnipropetrovsk region. The claim remains unverified by independent sources.
This reported advance comes as Moscow’s forces have gained significant ground in recent months, seizing approximately 950 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory over the past two months.
The European Union and Ukraine have struck a long-term trade agreement, ending their wartime trade liberalisation measures.
The agreement is “predictable” and has a “reciprocal” framework, said EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic and agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen, as they added that the finer points will be finalised “in the coming days”.
The Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, including a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), was first negotiated between 2007 and 2011, and signed on 21 March and 27 June 2014, a statement by the EU commission yesterday said.
The DCFTA deal notably removed the vast majority of tariffs on industrial goods.
Under the three tiers of the new framework, there will be modest increases in quotas for products like eggs, poultry, sugar, wheat, maize and honey, which are considered sensitive by EU member states.
In the agreement, the EU and Ukraine will work to adjust the quotas for a second group of products like butter, skimmed milk powder, oats, barley, malt and gluten, to push them to reach peak import levels since the war began in February 2022.
The trade deal will fully liberalise a third section of items like whole milk powder, fermented milk, mushrooms, and grape juice.
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Three dead and dozens injured after Kyiv strikes Russian drone factory – The Independent
