LPR Launches Operation Against Ukrainian Army, Says There Are No Threats to Civilians

LUGANSK (Sputnik) – The Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) announced on Thursday that it had begun a military operation to free Kiev-controlled areas of the Lugansk region and that only military facilities would be targeted.

"On 24 February, the People's Militia of the Lugansk People's Republic began artillery preparation and an operation to liberate the temporarily occupied territory of the Lugansk People's Republic", a militia spokesperson said in a video message.

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"People's Militia units are firing only at military facilities, and places where personnel and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine gather", the spokesperson added.

Civilians are in no danger yet residents of frontline areas in the LPR and those living in the territory "temporarily controlled by Kiev" are urged to remain in their homes and go down to bomb shelters if possible, the spokesperson said.

"I appeal to the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to surrender their weapons, leave their positions, and not carry out the criminal orders of their armed forces", the spokesperson added.

Earlier in the day, Moscow launched an operation in Ukraine to protect the people of Donbass. The Russian Defence Ministry stated that precision weapons were used to neutralise Ukrainian military infrastructure and stressed that Russian forces were not targeting cities, and there were no threats to the Ukrainian civilian population.

President Putin stressed that the operation aims to stop the eight-year bloodshed in Donbass perpetrated by the Kiev regime and noted that the goals were the demilitarisation and denazification of Ukraine.