The News Came After NATO Leaders Pledged Their Continuing Support For Ukraine And Their War Effort Against Putin's Forces

Five months of fierce fighting in the Eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk comes to an end, after Russian and separatist forces captured the last remaining Ukrainian holdouts in the contested region of the Donbas.

The capitulation in Luhansk was announced by the Kremlin, following a NATO summit where the UK, US, EU, and Canada pledged to give Ukraine more arms, aid, and money to continue the fight against Vladimir Putin's advancing war machine.

The news of the regions loss to Russia was confirmed by an address from the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, who'd ordered a strategic retreat from the area amid Ukrainian troops being overran and captured.

During which he stated: “We will rebuild the walls, we will regain the land, but the people must be saved above all else”.

Videos released by Russian state TV, shows Chechen and separatist soldiers hoisting the flags of Russia and the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR), and dancing in the main square of the bombed out city of Lysychansk.

Russia's goal now is to capture the Donetsk: Home to the second separatist republic of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).

If Russia can capture the second half of the Donbas, then it will make a friendly Russian land border between the country and Crimea, which they illegally annexed in 2014.