LUGANSK, August 28. /TASS/. Russian forces entrapped and destroyed about 30 militants of Ukraine’s Azov nationalist battalion who planned an assault on Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS on Wednesday.

"Reconnaissance measures helped find out that a group of militants from the 12th Azov special operations brigade [outlawed in Russia as a terrorist organization) planned assault operations northwest of the settlement of Makeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic. Proceeding from the data received, a decision was made to temporarily leave several forward positions near Novovodyanoye to draw the enemy into them. The Ukrainian militants fell for the ruse and, after entering our positions, were caught in a trap. According to preliminary data, the Ukrainian armed formations lost about 30 motivated nationalists," the military expert said.

The Ukrainian militants who had survived realized that the idea held no prospects and returned to their positions, he added.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on July 21 that Russian troops had liberated the settlement of Rozovka in the LPR. As Marochko told TASS, the northwestern part of the republic’s territory has come under full control of the regional authorities after the Russian troops seized that community. Makeyevka is located in the northwest of the Lugansk People’s Republic.