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Military operation in Ukraine

FACTBOX: What we know about Russia's liberation of Lugansk People’s Republic

The liberation was completed by units from Battlegroup West

© Alexey Konovalov/TASS

MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Russia’s Battlegroup West completed the liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) on Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

TASS has compiled key details about the breakthrough.

Statement from Russia’s top brass

- The Lugansk People’s Republic has been liberated, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

- The liberation was completed by units from Battlegroup West, the ministry specified.

Course of liberation

- Russian forces have begun advancing into Olgovka in the Kharkov Region after taking control over commanding heights near Petrovskoye (known as Grekovka in Ukraine) in the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic, military expert Andrey Marochko told TASS on March 20.

- Russian forces edged Ukrainian troops toward the western outskirts of Olgovka as they pushed forward in the locality, he added.

- The expert described the advances of Russian troops as strategic as he said they would now be able to clear this sector of the LPR of Ukrainian militants.

- In December, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov briefed Russian President Vladimir Putin about progress made toward liberating the LPR.

- The tasks assigned are being completed on schedule, the senior Russian general noted.

- The liberation of Kupyansk helped expand the buffer zone in the Kharkov Region and reduce the threat of shelling in the northern LPR, Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said at a year-end Defense Ministry meeting in December.

- In 2025, the Russian Army expanded the share of liberated areas in the LPR by 30% from 2024, Marochko reported earlier.

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Military operation in Ukraine

Military operation in Ukraine

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FACTBOX: What we know about Russia's liberation of Lugansk People’s Republic

The liberation was completed by units from Battlegroup West

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