Russia Caplok Luhansk Ukraine, Kyiv Considers Illegal

Russian/DOK Military Total Alexey Konovov/TASS

JAKARTA - Russia claims to take full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), was the first Ukrainian territory to be fully under the control of Russian troops since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Putin in September 2022 announced Luhansk - along with parts of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia - will be included in Russia.

Putin's move was considered by Western European countries to be illegal and not recognized by most of the world.

"The Luhansk People's Republic has been completely released - 100%," Russia-backed regional head Leonid Pasechnik told Russian state television.

There was no direct confirmation from the Russian defense ministry, or comments from Ukraine.

Ukraine says Russia's claims to Luhansk and other regions internationally recognized as Ukrainian territory are baseless and illegal.

Kyiv stressed that he would never recognize Russia's sovereignty over the region.

Meanwhile, Russia says the territory is now part of Russia, under its nuclear umbrella, and will never be returned.

Luhansk was once part of the Russian empire but changed hands after the Russian Revolution.

The region was captured by the Red Army in 1920 and later became part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as part of Ukraine's Soviet Socialist Republic.

Together with Neighboring Donetsk, Luhansk was the site of the conflict that began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was ousted in the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukrainian armed forces in Luhansk and Donetsk.

Russia controls nearly 19% of internationally recognized territory as Ukrainian territory, including Luhansk, plus more than 70% of Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson regions, as well as parts of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropximsk.