Chechen Leader: Akhmat Special Forces And LPR Militia Conduct Cleanup Near Sievierodonetsk, Majority Of Ukrainian Troops Surrender

Pemimpin Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov. (Wikimedia Commons/SKFO.gov.ru/Press Service of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the North Caucasus Federal District)

JAKARTA - Units of Chechen troops and the people's militia of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) are completing a clearing operation in Metelkino village near the LPR town of Sievierodonetsk, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Sunday.

"Akhmat's special forces unit together with the second corps of the LPR People's Militia are completing a clearing operation in the village of Metelkino to free it from the enemy," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel, TASS reported June 20.

"Most of the Ukrainian troops voluntarily surrendered their weapons and those who tried to put up a fight were neutralized," Kadyrov continued.

Kadyrov further added that the village has strategic importance for the Ukrainian army.

"Ukrainian nationalists can reach Sievierodonetsk from here and distract Russian troops from the Azot factory. Impossible. The village has been cleared of nationalists and mines," he added.

As previously reported, Russia announced it had captured a village near the Ukrainian industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a key target in Moscow's campaign for control of the country's east.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had won Metyolkine, the settlement of less than 800 people before the war started, many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered there.

Last week, the head of the public, Leonid Pasechnik, said about 700 Ukrainian prisoners of war were in the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg (SPIEF)

"About 700 prisoners of war are currently in LPR territory. Of course, this number is constantly changing, increasing. What will happen to them: I think the court will decide, the court will decide," he said.

He added that the punishment will depend on the offense committed by each individual.