LUHANSK, July 15 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian army units are leaving their positions near east Ukraine’s Luhansk, the press office of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic reported on Tuesday.

“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are leaving their positions they had held near Krasnodon and have also withdrawn from Alexandrovka (west of Luhansk) and have started to pull back from the town of Schastye (north of Luhansk),” the press office said, adding there had been especially fierce battles between the Ukrainian military and the local self-defense militia near Schastye and the bridge across the Northern Donets River about a month ago.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces’ withdrawal from Alexandrovka and their gradual retreat from Schastye are not connected to self-defense fighters’ actions, the press office said.

“They are withdrawing on their own,” the press office said.

Ukraine’s military suspends combat aviation flights in offensive area

The Ukrainian armed forces conducting a military operation in the country’s embattled southeast have suspended combat aviation flights in the area to investigate a recent crash of a military plane, the operation’s press center said on Tuesday.

“Aviation flights have been suspended until a special order due to the investigation of Ukrainian Armed Forces' An-26 military transport plane crash in the Luhansk Region on July 14, 2014,” the press center said on its Facebook page.

Ukrainian military aircraft involved in the operation have been at their permanent bases since July 14, the statement said.

These measures have been taken to establish the causes of the An-26 plane crash and carry out an operation to find the plane’s six crew members, the statement said.