Moscow: Russian forces nearing to take full control of Luhansk

MOSCOW, May 20 (YPA) – Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on Friday Moscow was nearing to take full control of Ukraine’s eastern separatist region of Lugansk.

“The liberation of the Lugansk People’s Republic is nearing completion,” Shoigu said at a televised ministry meeting.

Separately, Shoigu said 1,908 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered at the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol.

Russia took control of the strategic city in southeastern Ukraine in late April.

E.M