MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has taken full control of Ukraine's eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television.

A Russia-appointed official in Ukraine’s occupied Luhansk region says that Moscow’s forces have overrun all of it.

Russia now claims full control of Ukraine’s Luhansk region—its first completely occupied territory since the 2022 invasion. Leonid Pasechnik, Moscow’s installed leader in Luhansk, declared the region “100% liberated” on Russian state TV.