Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow’s forces have control of 97% of the Luhansk region.
Russia has declared that taking full control of the entire Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government since 2014, is its main goal in the invasion of its neighboring country which began Feb. 24. The region recently has been bearing the brunt of the Russian onslaught.
It’s not clear whether Russia would try to expand its offensive elsewhere in Ukraine if it takes the Donbas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned Monday that if the West provides Ukraine with long-range rockets capable of reaching Russian territory, Moscow will respond by pressing its offensive deeper into Ukraine.
Early in the war, the Russian troops also took control of the entire Kherson region and a large part of the Zaporizhzhia region in the south. Russian officials and their local appointees have mulled plans for those regions to either declare their independence or be folded into Russia.
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