LUGANSK, December 4. /TASS/. Units of the Ukrainian armed forces stationed near the settlement of Nadiya in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) have retreated to the second and third lines of defense due to assaults by Russian forces and the threat of encirclement, Andrey Marochko, a military expert, told TASS.

"Regular artillery attacks, the risk of encirclement, and sustained pressure on Ukrainian units by the Russian Armed Forces have compelled the Ukrainian militants to reposition their personnel to the second and third lines of defense in the area of Nadiya. As a result, the distance between the main forces’ positions has increased to 2 kilometers [1.2 miles]," he said.

He also noted that the enemy units have begun to rapidly reinforce their positions near the Pershotravnevoye-Raigorodka motor road.

On Tuesday, the expert told TASS that Russian servicemen only needed to push Ukrainian troops out of five more settlements in the LPR to gain full control over the region. According to him, the settlements that need to be liberated are Nadiya, Novoyegorovka, and Petrovskoye in the Svatovsky district, Novolyubovka in the Kremenskoy district, and Belogorovka in the Lisichansky district.