People's Republic of Lugansk declares martial law

The administration of the People's Republic of Lugansk declared martial law on the territory.

Photo: AP photo

Today, a representative of the local administration said that the militia of the People's Republic of Lugansk and Kiev troops started a military action at night. The fighting started at night and still continues, the official said. For the time being, nothing has been reported about any victims.

Earlier, it was reported that Kiev was concentrating its troops near the borders of the Lugansk region. Local authorities believe that the troops may soon go on the offensive.

Officials with the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine said that border guards repulsed several attacks of "armed groups" on the Ukrainian- Russian border in the Lugansk region at night. Several guards were wounded and shell-shocked.

The Kiev authorities continue the military operation in eastern Ukraine to suppress the protest movement that emerged as a reaction to the change of power in the country. Both sides have suffered numerous losses. At the same time, the Ukrainian parliament approved the text of the "Memorandum of Peace and Consent" on Tuesday. The document provides for the withdrawal of troops from the east of the country to places of permanent deployment, but the special operation in the east still continues.

"This is a punitive operation, which some officials call an antiterrorist one, and it becomes completely absurd. Even the fighters, who fight on the side of the Kiev armed forces, note that ordinary people do not perceive them as liberators or the people, with whom they could engage in a dialogue. They perceive them as aggressors and occupiers," the director of the Ukrainian branch of the Institute for CIS, Denis Denisov, told Pravda.Ru.