LUGANSK, July 4. /TASS/. Even as the Lugansk People’s Republic gains control of its entire territory, its security is insufficient because it’s still within range of Ukrainian weapons, Andrey Marochko, an officer of the LPR’s People’s Militia, told TASS on Sunday.
"The forces and means available to the Ukrainian army now don’t allow us, unfortunately, to say that the liberation of the LPR and the reaching of its administrative borders can ensure the security of the LPR," he said.
"Unfortunately, there are forces and means that can hit the territory of the LPR from the territory of the DPR. Therefore, I believe, and it’s my deep conviction, that now we must stand abreast with the People’s Militia of the DPR and the Russian armed forces and push the enemy back by as much as is enough to say that we are completely safe," the officer said.
Marochko said a safe distance should be about 300 kilometers from the LPR borders.
On Sunday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that control of the Lugansk People's Republic had been seized. The Defense Ministry said the Russian forces and the People's Militia of the LPR have established full control over Lisichansk and a number of nearby settlements, the largest of which are Belogorovka, Novodruzhesk, Maloryazantsevo and Belaya Gora.
LPR borders
Since the beginning of March, the People’s Militia of the LPR has been on an offensive to capture the cities of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. Taking control of these cities was complicated by the fact that Ukraine had organized a several tiers of defense and that several large chemical enterprises are located in the area.
On June 25, units of the LPR, with the support of Russian troops, took control of Severodonetsk, taking the entire left-bank territory of the Seversky Donets River within the borders of the LPR under the full control of the republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said at the time. After that, the offensive of the LPR and Russian forces continued toward Lisichansk. On Saturday, it was reported that the forces of the LPR and Russia occupied all the strategically important heights around the city of Lisichansk and the Ukrainian group remaining in the city lost the chance of retreat.
Prior to the start of the special military operation on February 24, the territory controlled by the LPR was about 8,000 square kilometers, about a third of the entire territory of the Lugansk Region.
