Iran War Takes a Back Seat, Russia Suddenly Claims New Victory
Russia has stated that it has fully seized control of Luhansk, a strategic region that has been one of the centres of conflict since the start of the invasion. However, Kyiv quickly refuted any significant changes on the battlefield.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that its forces had taken full control of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, indicating that they had succeeded in capturing a small patch of territory that had remained out of reach since 2022.
On the other hand, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said there had been no changes on the front lines in that region in the past six months.
More than 99% of the Luhansk region, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed as its territory in 2022, has in fact long been under Moscow’s control. Kyiv and most Western countries rejected that annexation claim as an illegal seizure of territory.
“Units from the ‘Western’ military group have completed the liberation of the Luhansk People’s Republic,” Russia’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement, using Moscow’s preferred name for the region, according to Reuters on Thursday (2/4/2026).
Luhansk is one of two regions, along with Donetsk, that form the industrial Donbas area.
The Kremlin has also reiterated its demand for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the parts of Donetsk not yet controlled by Russia in order to end what Moscow calls the “hot phase” of the war. Kyiv has repeatedly rejected those demands, calling them unreasonable.
Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision to withdraw forces from the entire Donbas would help resolve the remaining diplomatic issues.
“If he makes the decision to withdraw forces and if we then verify that he has withdrawn them, then prospects will certainly open up to resolve many issues, including the question of ending military action,” Ushakov said.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence also stated that its forces had captured the village of Verkhnya Pysarivka in the Kharkiv region and Boikove in the Zaporizhzhia region in southeastern Ukraine.