'Wishful thinking' — Ukraine rubbishes Russia's latest Luhansk Oblast claim

Oleksii Kharchenko, the head of Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, denied Russia's claim that its troops have fully taken control of Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, saying 14 settlements remain unoccupied by Moscow.

On April 21, Russia's Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, announced that its forces had "fully completed" the occupation of Luhansk Oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry last claimed the same thing on April 1.

Russia currently occupies the majority of the region, with the city of Luhansk and the regional government controlled by Kremlin-installed proxies. But a small parcel of land on the western border of Luhansk Oblast remains contested.

In an April 22 comment to the Kyiv Independent, Kharchenko said that part of Luhansk Oblast remains under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which "have not lost any ground there for quite some time."

According to Kharchenko, 14 settlements in Luhansk Oblast are not under Russian control. These villages and towns are either in the middle of active battles, in a gray zone, or remain under Ukrainian control.

"(Russia) needs significant victories on the battlefield by May 9 (Russia's Victory Day celebrations). But there are none. That is why the invaders are trying to pass off wishful thinking as reality," Kharchenko said.

Kharchenko added that Ukraine's troops are stationed in Novoyehorivka and Hrekivka areas.

Oleksandr Borodin, a spokesperson for Ukraine's 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, also said in a comment to Interfax Ukraine on April 21  that the areas Kharchenko mentioned and the village of Nadiia remain under Ukrainian control despite constant Russian offensive operations and heavy losses among its military personnel and equipment.

"Therefore, the Russian claims are not true," Borodin said.

The battlefield monitoring group DeepState showed the same settlements unoccupied as of April 20.

Accurately measuring the control, loss, and gain of territory along the front lines is increasingly difficult, as the contested "grey zone" between Ukrainian and Russian-held territory widens.

Luhansk Oblast makes up part of Ukraine's Donbas and is one of four regions that the Russian Federation has claimed as its own. Russian troops have occupied Luhansk Oblast since the 2014 Donbas invasion. In September 2002, Russia illegally declared its annexation of Luhansk along with Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

Russia continues to demand that Ukraine withdraw troops from the entire Donbas region, including areas Kyiv still controls. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on April 1 that President Volodymyr Zelensky should decide "already today" to surrender the region.

The demand came a day after Zelensky said Russia had given Kyiv two months to pull its forces from Donbas or face additional conditions in U.S.-mediated peace talks, which have stalled amid the continuing war in Iran.

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