LUGANSK, June 23. /TASS/. The militia forces of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) have repeatedly registered instances of the surrender of Ukrainian territorial defense troops who are brought to the frontline without weapons and food, LPR Assistant Interior Minister Vitaly Kiselyov told TASS on Thursday.

"There are numerous instances of the surrender of territorial defense militants after they are brought to the frontline without weapons, foodstuffs and clothes. They surrender in order to survive," he said.

Over the past few days, the allied forces of the LPR people’s militia and the Russian army have been moving ahead in their advance south of Lisichansk to trap the Ukrainian military in that city and at the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk. According to a source close to the LPR people’s militia, militants from the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Aidar battalion holed up in the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk are expected to start surrendering en masse by the evening.

The militia fighters of the Lugansk People’s Republic have been developing an offensive on Severodonetsk and Lisichansk since early March and the seizure of these cities is a top priority for the republic. The cities’ liberation has been complicated since the Ukrainian military has set up multilayered defenses there and is using civilians as a human shield.