A serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces in the Luhansk region. Archival photo LUGANSK, April 2 — RIA Novosti. 170 Ukrainian servicemen laid down their weapons in the Luhansk People's Republic, Victoria Serdyukova, Commissioner for Human Rights in the LPR, said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
"As far as I know, to date, 170 servicemen of Ukraine have laid down their arms and are on the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic", she said.
As noted by the Ombudsman, the LPR has repeatedly stated that «all servicemen Ukraine, who voluntarily laid down their arms, who went over to the side of the republic, on whose hands there is no blood of civilians, civilians, will be released home at the end of the military operation. Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» For this, according to him, it is planned to carry out «demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine», to bring to justice all war criminals responsible for «bloody crimes against civilians» in Donbass. As noted in the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces strike only at military infrastructure and Ukrainian troops and , on March 25, completed the main tasks of the first stage — significantly reduced the combat potential of Kyiv. The main goal in the Russian military department was called the liberation of Donbass. What awaits the Ukrainian army in the Donbass