Russia no longer has full control of Luhansk as Ukraine recaptures towns

Russia is no longer in "full control" of the eastern Donbas territory of Luhansk as the Ukrainians recaptured a village close to the eastern city of Lysychansk, in what is being hailed as a "symbolic" victory if not a major one. The capture of the Luhansk and Donetsk, the two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine has been Russian president Vladimir Putin's one of the key goals of the military invasion. 

Moscow declared victory in Luhansk after capture of Lysychansk in July

Moscow and its allies had declared that its troops were in full control of all of Ukraine's Luhansk region after capturing the last major city, Lysychansk back in the month of July. However, Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, on Monday declared on Telegram that Ukraine’s armed forces were now in “complete control” of Bilohorivka and were advancing deeper in a rather fierce counter-offensive. 

“It’s a suburb of Lysychansk. Soon we will drive these s***ba*s out of there with a broom,” head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration said. “Step by step, centimetre by centimetre, we will liberate our entire land from the invaders.”

The Russian defence ministry had said in July that its troops captured the villages surrounding Lysychansk, encircling the area. Credit: AP

In the video footage, shared on Telegram, Ukrainian soldiers were spotted patrolling the streets of Bilohorivka which was previously occupied by the invading Russian troops. The city in Luhansk was under Russian control for the past two and a half months but the Ukrainians over the past several weeks have pressed their counteroffensive, and plan to recapture once a major coal mining hub,  Lysychansk. Russian armed forces, with the units from the people's militia of the Luhansk People's Republic, had gained full control over the city of Lysychansk 2 months ago according to the Russian ministry of defence. Russian forces had also seized Lysychansk's sister city Sievierodonetsk.

People salvage some of their belongings from a building damaged in a Russian rocket attack in Bakhmut, Ukraine. Credit: Efrem Lukatsky/AP

As hostilities intensified, the Russian troops heavily shelled the city of Kupiansk from their new defensive positions east of the Oskil River. As many as 200 Russian soldiers died as Ukrainians conducted a strike on a bus shelter at the frontline city of Svatove where Russian troops were housed in a base. Governor Haidai in a Telegram post stated that the leaders of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic were beginning to panic as Ukrainians pushed in.