MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. The Ukrainian military has chosen Lugansk as the target of its bombardments to demonstrate the capabilities of long-range weapons that Britain handed over to the Kiev regime, former ambassador of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) in Moscow Rodion Miroshnik said on Monday.

"I believe that this can be notionally called demonstrative performance in global politics. That is, Lugansk has become a place, against which strikes have been purposefully delivered to demonstrate the capabilities of the long-range missiles transferred by the Britons," the former LPR ambassador said in a live broadcast on the Soloviev Live television channel.

As Miroshnik pointed out, "according to the most conservative estimates," the weapons handed over to the Kiev regime can strike targets from a range of 290 km while the Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles can engage targets at a distance of 560 km.

"All the new regions can come within the radius of their attack, including Crimea, and a whole number of regions of the so-called mainland Russia, against which these missiles can also be launched," he specified.

Britain has run counter to the general policy that did not support the handover of long-range weapons to Ukraine because "it will deliver strikes against Russian territory," Miroshnik said.

"This may enlarge or intensify the conflict, i.e. it may transform to a different phase," he said.

An explosion occurred in the LPR capital of Lugansk at 1:30 p.m. on May 15. According to preliminary data, a grenade exploded in a barber’s shop, wounding five people, with three of them in severe condition. It emerged later that the explosion was an attempt on the life of acting LPR Interior Minister Igor Kornet who was seriously wounded. As LPR people’s militia retired Lieutenant-Colonel Andrey Marochko said, Kornet’s condition is stable.