KYIV (Reuters) – Russia is pouring heavy equipment and mobilised troops into the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine but Ukrainian forces are still defending the region, regional governor Serhiy Haidai said on Wednesday.
Russia said earlier on Wednesday that its troops had broken through two fortified lines of Ukrainian defences on the eastern front. Russia’s Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had retreated in the face of Russian attacks in Luhansk but did not say in which part of the region.
“There is a lot of shelling, the aviation is already connected. The attacks are coming from different directions in waves,” Haidai said. “We see that they are transferring mobilised people (to the front), we also see that there is more (heavy) equipment.”
But he added: “Those who spread the information that allegedly our defence forces have pulled back beyond the line of the administrative border (of Luhansk) — this does not correspond to reality.”
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
