Vladimir Putin spoke with his Defense Minister, saying that Russian forces “must carry out their missions according to the plans already approved”.
Vladimir Putin ordered his forces on Monday July 4 to continue their offensive in eastern Ukraine, after the conquest of the entire Lugansk region.
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Russian forces”must carry out their missions according to the plans already approved“, declared Vladimir Putin during an interview with his Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, broadcast on television. “I hope that in their sectors everything will turn out as it happened in Lugansk“, he added. These statements come the day after the announcement of the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the strategic city of Lysytchansk, a takeover which completes the control of the Lugansk region by Russian forces and the separatists put in place by Moscow.
The Lugansk region and the neighboring Donetsk region form the Donbass, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces intend to conquer in its entirety. Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defense minister, said on Monday that Moscow’s forces were “carry out mine clearance in the city of Lysychansk“.
SEE ALSO – Moscow forces control Lugansk region, Sergei Shoigu announces
“Heroes of Russia”
Vladimir Putin also indicated that two of his generals, Alexander Lapin and Essedoulla Abatchev, will be made “heroes of russiafor their role in the fighting in Ukraine, without further details.
Russia, very secret about this type of information, had recently revealed the names of two generals, Sergei Surovikin and Alexander Lapin, in charge of the offensive on Lyssytchansk. On Monday, Vladimir Putin indicated that these two men had directlyreport (Monday) on the course taken by the execution of their missions and their proposals for the continuation of the offensive operations“.
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The capture of Lyssytchansk, which formed a strategic lock with the twin city of Severodonetsk, allows Russian forces and separatists to move more easily towards the west and the key cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the two largest cities of Donbass still controlled by the kyiv army. On Monday, a senior separatist official, Vitali Kiseliev, said that forces from Moscow were now advancing from two directions towards the locality of Siversk, on the way to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
SEE ALSO – Ukraine: “Impossible to say that Lyssytchansk is under Russian control”, assures Zelensky