Luhansk Military Administration:Tension builds with growing Russian military presence

Kateryna Tyshchenko – Thursday, 31 March 2022, 19:31

Tension is building in the Luhansk region as Russian forces gather military machinery and equipment in the region. Chechen militants have entered the region, too. 

Source: Serhiy Haidai, Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration

According to Haidai: "There has been a significant build-up of tension. We are observing the arrival of a lot of [military] equipment. For the most part, it is unloaded in Debaltseve [a city in the Donetsk region on the border with the Luhansk region] and then brought into our region. Chechen soldiers have already entered the temporarily occupied territory of our region."

Details: Haidai also noted that Russian forces bring in the Chechen soldiers "as if they are some creatures from hell."

"Truth be told, yesterday our troops covered about 50 units of military equipment with artillery fire and shot the headquarters of the Chechen troops. No one was left alive there," Haidai said.

He added that the Russian army deploys the Chechen troops to contain and control those soldiers who are mobilised from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine under the threat of being shot.

Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration said that he believes that having gathered forces and equipment in the region, Russian troops might go on the offensive in Popasna and Rubizhne.

"Shelling here has intensified. I think that once they gather enough equipment, they will attempt a major breakthrough near Popasna and Rubizhne. Currently they are just constantly deploying these newly accumulated forces on the offensive, in order to break through [the Ukrainian defence] at least somewhere, but they have no success. So they are just shelling everything now," he said.

Background:

• Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said that some of the units that Russia is withdrawing from the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions have been redeployed to Kharkiv and Donetsk.
• Russia’s Defence Ministry says its troops have completed "major tasks" on the Kyiv and Chernihiv fronts and are regrouping to capture Donbas completely.