Serhii Haidai: "Luhansk People’s Republic" is turning into a "Women’s People’s Republic"
IRYNA BALACHUK — WEDNESDAY, 20 JULY 2022, 16:10
There are so few men of military age left in Luhansk Oblast that even students and elderly men are being sent to the front line.
Source: Serhii Haidai, Chairman of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, on Telegram
Quote from Haidai: "The ‘Luhansk People's Republic’ is turning into a ‘Women's People's Republic’ due to forced mobilisation – Russia is sending final-year students and people who have almost reached retirement age to the front line."
Details: Haidai added that fighting in the oblast is still ongoing, which is why the invaders are unable to carry out an offensive on Bakhmut. According to him, evacuation from Bilohorivka and Verkhnokamianske is now impossible due to the constant shelling, but the Russians suffered heavy losses in the battles for the city of Sievierodonetsk and the Hirska hromada (amalgamated territorial community).
Background:
- In March, the Ukrainian General Staff reported for the first time that the Russians had been forced to resort to covert mobilisation in remote regions of Russia. It became known that Russia had also started to mobilise people in the occupied territories of Donbas and Crimea.
- In July, Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said that Russia had begun covert mobilisation, forming so-called "volunteer battalions".
