Russia’s defence minister said Russian forces took control Sunday of the last major Ukrainian-held city in Luhansk province, which would bring Moscow closer to its stated goal of seizing all of Ukraine’s Donbas region.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin that Russia’s troops, together with members of a local separatist militia, “have established full control over the city of Lysychansk,” a ministry statement said.
Taking Lysychansk constitutes “the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” one of two separatist regions in Ukraine that Russia recognizes as sovereign, the statement said.
Ukrainian fighters spent weeks trying to defend Lysychansk and to keep it from
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