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Russia is moving closer to one of its goals in Ukraine, according to a recent report from the Institute for the Study of War.
As the conflict between the two neighboring nations enters its third year, Russian forces are now in control of nearly the entire Luhansk region, according to Angelica Evans, a researcher at the American institute.
Luhansk, like Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, are the four regions that were illegally annexed in September 2022 by Russia. However, none of these areas are fully controlled by Moscow.
Since 2014, Crimea has also been under the Russian flag, but Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has said that he also wants to take back this region.
While Ukrainian forces have recently penetrated Russian territory with a rapid breakthrough in the Kursk region, Russian troops have been regaining ground on the eastern Ukrainian front.
“Seizing the rest of Luhansk Oblast is likely to be primarily an informational goal and the Kremlin will almost certainly make exaggerated claims about taking the oblast,” she told Newsweek.
“The Kremlin will probably present the capture of Luhansk Oblast in the Russian and global information space as a major victory on the battlefield,” she added.
