A day earlier, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Russian forces had established full control over the territory of the Lugansk People’s Republic.
State Duma deputy Viktor Vodolatsky said the main fighting had unfolded near the border with Kharkov Region, where Ukrainian forces had built a heavily fortified defensive area. According to him, the opposing side did everything it could to halt the Russian advance.
Vodolatsky said Gerasimov was referring to territory where no populated areas remained, but which had long been considered a grey zone along the Kharkov border. In his account, Ukrainian troops had created major fortified positions there, and Russian forces took that area in order to bring the Lugansk People’s Republic fully within its administrative borders.
He also said the fiercest battles took place in the Serebryanskoye forestry area, which, according to his description, had been turned by Ukrainian forces into a major defensive stronghold. Once that sector was overcome, he argued, Russian troops were able to continue expanding the sanitary zone along the border.
In Vodolatsky’s view, full control over the Lugansk People’s Republic also frees up resources for offensive operations in other sectors of the front, particularly toward Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.