LUGANSK, July 2. /TASS/. More than 2,000 members of Ukraine’s territorial defense units had been deployed in the now-encircled city of Lisichansk to protect foreign mercenaries, Vitaly Kiselev, an aide to the interior minister of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), told TASS on Saturday.

"At present, approximately 2,150 ‘disposable fighters’ are stationed in Lisichansk and its outskirts. They were brought here against their will. They are members of local territorial defense squads, redeployed from the regions of Lvov, Rovno, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk and others to defend a whole army of mercenaries," he said.

Rodion Miroshnik, the ambassador of the Lugansk People’s Republic in Moscow, said on Friday LPR and Russian forces had seized control of northern areas of Lisichansk and were mopping them up.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that the Ukrainian army’s failures had triggered the growing number of deserters and servicemen escaping combat operations, while scattered formations were fleeing Lisichansk in a disorganized manner.