LUGANSK, July 28. /TASS/. The Ukrainian armed forces’ losses in the zone of responsibility of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) People’s Militia over the past day amounted to 45 people, four more servicemen voluntarily laid down their weapons, LPR’s People’s Militia Spokesman Ivan Filiponenko reported on Thursday.
“Over the past 24 hours in the course of active offensive actions of the LPR People’s Militia units, the enemy suffered heavy losses in manpower and military equipment. Destroyed: three armored personnel carriers, six units of special automotive equipment, up to 45 [Ukrainian] servicemen died,” the press service of the People’s Militia quoted him as saying on its Telegram channel. He noted that four Ukrainian servicemen laid down their weapons, thus saving their lives.
The representative of the People’s Militia added that the LPR soldiers suppressed two long-term firing points of the Ukrainian military in the past 24 hours.
Also, according to Filiponenko, during the day, LPR sappers cleared “more than 8 hectares of territory from explosive objects left by Ukrainian nationalists in the areas of Varvarovka and Pshenychnoye settlements.”
Tensions escalated along the line of contact in Donbass on February 17. The Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics reported the heaviest shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces in months. On February 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he recognized the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in accordance with their constitutions within the borders of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions at the beginning of 2014. On February 24, in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics, he announced a special military operation in Ukraine. The DPR and LPR began an operation to liberate their territories, which were under Kiev’s control.