According to Russia Today (RT), Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on July 3 that "the last remnants of Ukrainian forces have been driven out" of the LPR. Russian troops aided by Donbas forces seized the major city of Lisichansk, which had been under the control of Kyiv since 2014, he added. Shoigu also relayed the news of the LPR's liberation to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
RT added that Russian and Ukrainian forces had engaged in heavy fighting, with Lisichansk's oil refinery serving as a mute witness to the fierce battle. News of the city's capture followed Kyiv's retreat from the nearby city of Severodonetsk. (Related: Beginning of the end… Defeated Ukrainian forces retreat from Severodonetsk.)
A day before Shoigu's announcement, the Washington Post (WaPo) ran an article critical of how the Russia-Ukraine war was shown in an optimistic light. It pointed out that "analysts and U.S. lawmakers … [have been] questioning whether American officials have portrayed the crisis in overly rosy terms."
"U.S. officials acknowledge that as Russian forces have massed firepower, they have gradually seized territory in eastern Ukraine. That includes capturing the strategically important city of Severodonetsk in June and pressing to do the same in its nearby sister city of Lisichansk," stated the WaPo piece.
Chris Menahan of Information Liberation commented on this development. "Remember how the media refused to acknowledge [how the Azov Battalion] surrendered in [the] Azovstal [steel plant] back in May? We're seeing similar now with their refusal to acknowledge Russia's victory over the Donbas," he wrote.
Menahan added that "taking control of the Donbas has been Putin's stated goal for months after it became clear Kyiv wasn't going to fall in a week."
State Department triggered by Syria acknowledging the LPR's independence
Back in February, Putin declared the independence of the LPR and the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). He also signed decrees affirming their sovereignty.
"I consider it necessary to take a long-overdue decision: to immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of [the] DPR and LPR," he said in a Feb. 21 speech. "Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of the bloodshed will be entirely on the conscience of the regime ruling on the territory of Ukraine." The Russian leader later mobilized ground troops to the newly declared republics for "peacekeeping purposes."
Several Russian allies, including Syria, recognized the independence and sovereignty of the two people's republics.
"Upon the common will and desire to establish relations in all fields, the Syrian Arab Republic decided to recognize the independence and sovereignty of both the LPR and the DPR," the Syria Times quoted an official source at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates on June 29.
The ministry added that there will be communications among the three countries to agree on the frameworks for strengthening relations, including establishing diplomatic relations in accordance with the established rules.
However, Syria's acknowledgment of the LPR and DPR did not sit well with the U.S. Department of State, which took to Twitter to denounce the move.
"The Assad regime's recognition of the so-called 'people's republics' reveals the regime's isolation. It also shows the regime's disdain for international norms of behavior and hypocrisy regarding claims of sovereignty," wrote the department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in a tweet.
Head over to WWIII.news for more stories about the Russia-Ukraine war.
Watch this RT report below about the Ukrainian media pushing false stories of heroism as myths.
This video is from The Prisoner channel on Brighteon.com.
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