Russia says Moscow now occupies all of Ukraine’s Luhansk region,
illegally annexed in 2022
[July 01, 2025]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV and GEIR MOULSON
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russia-appointed official in Ukraine's occupied
Luhansk region said Monday that Moscow's forces have overrun all of it —
one of four regions Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in September
2022 despite not fully controlling a single one.
If confirmed, that would make Luhansk the first Ukrainian region fully
occupied by Russia after more than three years of war and as recent
U.S.-led international peace efforts have failed to make progress on
halting the fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has effectively rejected a ceasefire
and hasn’t budged from his demands, which include Moscow's control over
the four illegally annexed regions.
There was no immediate comment from Kyiv on the claim made by the
Moscow-installed leader of the occupied region, Leonid Pasechnik. In
remarks to Russia's state TV Channel One that aired Monday evening,
Pasechnik said he received a report “literally two days ago” saying that
“100%” of the region was now under the control of Russian forces.
Germany's top diplomat visits Kyiv
The development came just hours after the top German diplomat said that
Germany aims to help Ukraine manufacture more weapons more quickly as
Kyiv looks to strengthen its negotiating position in peace talks with
Russia.
“We see our task as helping Ukraine so that it can negotiate more
strongly,” Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said during a visit to the
Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, accompanied by German defense industry
representatives.
“When Putin speaks of peace today, it is pure mockery," Wadephul told a
news conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. "His
apparent readiness to negotiate is only a facade so far.”
Russia’s invasion shows no sign of letting up. Its grinding war of
attrition along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line and
long-range strikes on civilian areas of Ukraine have killed thousands of
troops and civilians.
Ukraine is outgunned and shorthanded on the front line and international
aid has been vital for Ukraine’s resistance against its neighbor's
bigger army and economy. Germany has been Ukraine’s second-largest
military backer after the United States, whose continuing support is in
doubt.
“We want to build new joint ventures so that Ukraine itself can produce
faster and more for its own defense, because your needs are enormous,”
Wadephul said while standing next to Sybiha.
“Our arms cooperation is a real trump card — it is a logical
continuation of our delivery of material,” Wadephul said. “And we can
even benefit mutually from it — with your wealth of ideas and your
experience, we will become better.”
Wadephul was also due to meet with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on socioeconomic
development of Russia-controlled Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and
Zaporozhye regions at the Senate Palace of the Kremlin in Moscow,
Russia, Monday, June 30, 2025. (Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik,
Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russia's aerial attacks on Ukraine continue
The top German diplomat's trip to Kyiv came less than 48 hours after
Russia launched its biggest combined aerial attack against Ukraine
over the weekend, Ukrainian officials said, in an escalating bombing
campaign that has further dashed hopes for a breakthrough in peace
efforts.
Ukraine’s air force said Monday it detected 107 Russian Shahed and
decoy drones in the country’s air space overnight.
Strikes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region left two civilians
dead and eight injured, including a 6-year-old child, regional Gov.
Oleh Syniehubov said Monday.
The aerial onslaughts are calculated by Russia to squeeze Ukraine
into submission, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
“Russia is continuing to use increasingly large numbers of drones in
its overnight strike packages in order to overwhelm Ukrainian air
defenses and enable subsequent cruise and ballistic missile
strikes,” the Washington-based think tank said late Sunday.
“The increases in Russia’s strike packages in recent weeks are
largely due to Russia’s efforts to scale up its defense industrial
production, particularly of Shahed and decoy drones and ballistic
missiles,” the institute added.
Sybiha thanked Germany for its contribution to Ukraine’s air defense
and urged Berlin to send more antimissile systems.
The Russians “are attacking civilian targets in order to create
panic, to influence the mood of our population,” he said. “The key
is the air defense system.”
Berlin has balked at granting Zelenskyy’s request to provide Ukraine
with powerful German- and Swedish-made Taurus long-range missiles,
which could potentially hit targets inside Russia. That is due to
fears such a move could enrage the Kremlin and draw NATO into
Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz pledged in May to help Ukraine
develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any
Western-imposed limitations on their use and targets.
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Moulson contributed from Berlin.
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