Luhansk under full Russian control now, official claims

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.

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Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km, is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Mr 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.