LUGANSK, April 14. /TASS/. Head of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) Leonid Pasechnik expressed confidence that the conflict in Donbass will be over soon and peace will be established in the region as a result of the special operation by Russian, LPR and DPR troops in his address to the republic’s residents marking an anniversary of the beginning of Kiev’s military operation in Donbass in 2014.

"During eight years, the date of April 14, being the starting point of Ukrainian aggression against the people of Donbass and the beginning of genocide of the residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, is filled for each one of us with infinite pain and sorrow. On this day in 2014, Ukraine officially began the so-called anti-terrorist operation," the Luganskinformcenter news agency quoted him as saying.

In February 2022, the Lugansk People’s Militia launched a military operation on liberating the region from Ukraine’s armed formations, the republic’s leader noted. "I am confident that very soon the war will be in the past and the long-awaited peace will come," he said. Pasechnik expressed sincere condolences to all the LPR residents who suffered as a result of Ukrainian aggression as well as to those who lost their loved ones.

The situation at the Donbass engagement line flared up on February 17. The self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) reported the most massive bombardments by the Ukrainian armed forces over the past months. Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, noting that the operation was aimed at the denazification and demilitarization of Ukraine.