The pro-Russian separatists of the Ukrainian Donbass claimed this Thursday, March 31 to control almost all of the Lugansk region and more than half of that of Donetsk, Moscow having made the conquest of these territories of eastern Ukraine its priority.
These claims could not be independently verified.
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As of the morning of March 31, 2022, more than 90% of the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic has been liberated
," the diplomacy of this territory, whose independence has been recognized by just Russia, said on its Telegram channel on Thursday. before its offensive on Ukraine.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk separatists, for his part assured Wednesday that "
about 55 to 60%
" of the territory of the eponymous Ukrainian region was under Russian control.
95% Mariupol under Russian control
Before the start of the Russian offensive on February 24, the separatists, at war with Ukrainian forces since 2014, controlled about a third of each of these regions, i.e. 8,900 km2 of the 26,500 km2 of Donetsk and 8,400 km2 of the 26,700 km2 of Donetsk. from Lugansk.
In the Donetsk region, the main town escaping Russian and pro-Russian forces is Mariupol, which has been under brutal siege for weeks.
The leader of the Russian Caucasian republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, whose thousands of men are fighting in Mariupol, assured him that 90 to 95% of the strategic port city was now under Russian control.
According to him, the last Ukrainian defenders are entrenched in the Azovstal metallurgical plant, located in the east of Mariupol.
A ceasefire is due to come into effect in the city on the Russian side on Thursday to allow the evacuation of tens of thousands of people still living there in catastrophic humanitarian conditions.
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Russia has said it is concentrating its military effort on Ukraine's Donbass, claiming both to have achieved its objectives in the rest of the country and to give a sign of good faith, after Russian-Ukrainian talks this week in Istanbul, in reducing its attacks in the direction of kyiv and Cherniguiv.
These assurances have so far left Ukraine and Westerners skeptical and they believe that Moscow has had to revise its objectives in the face of Ukrainian resistance.