MOSCOW, February 1. /TASS/. The authorities of the Lugansk People's Republic (LPR) control 95% of the region's territory and plan to use this land to grow crops, LPR leader Leonid Pasechnik said in an interview with the "Vmeste.rf" TV channel.

"Less than 5% of our territory is not yet under our control - this is the settlement of Belogorovka. In general, this is not critical," Pasechnik said, specifying that the republic is ready for the planting season and will be able to start it in a month-and-a-half or two months.

He noted that after the liberation of the LPR from Ukrainian troops, the republic has added about one million hectares of arable land to the 200,000 hectares it had. "[This land] is very fertile. This is the black soil that Nazi Germany was taking out in trainloads during the Great Patriotic War (part of WWII that the Soviet Union fought against the Nazi Germany in 1941-1945)," Pasechnik added.