July 1, MOSCOW — Russia now claims to have complete control over Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, marking a significant development more than three years after President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Leonid Pasechnik, a Russian-installed official who leads the self-proclaimed “Luhansk People’s Republic,” announced the claim during an interview with Russian state media. “The territory is entirely liberated—100%,” Pasechnik stated, asserting that Russian forces have secured the entire region.
Spanning approximately 26,700 square kilometers (10,308 square miles), Luhansk is the first of Ukraine’s regions to fall entirely under sustained Russian control since Crimea was annexed in 2014.
In September 2022, the Kremlin declared that four partially occupied Ukrainian regions—Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia—were being absorbed into the Russian Federation. The move was widely condemned by Western nations and deemed illegal under international law, with the vast majority of countries refusing to recognize the annexations.
As of now, there has been no official confirmation from Russia’s Ministry of Defence regarding Pasechnik’s claim. Ukrainian officials have not yet issued a public response. Kyiv maintains that all Russian claims over Ukrainian territory are illegitimate and has vowed never to recognize Moscow’s sovereignty in these regions.
From Russia’s perspective, these territories are now considered part of the Russian Federation, covered by its nuclear security framework, and are non-negotiable in terms of return.
Historically, Luhansk was part of the Russian Empire before becoming part of the Soviet Union in 1922 as a region of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Alongside neighboring Donetsk, Luhansk has been a central flashpoint in the conflict that erupted following Ukraine’s 2014 Maidan Revolution, which ousted a pro-Russian government. That same year, Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatist movements in both Luhansk and Donetsk.
Currently, Russia controls nearly 19% of internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. This includes all of Luhansk, the majority of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, as well as parts of the Kharkiv, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.