Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin that all of Ukraine’s Luhansk region had been “liberated” by Russian and DPR forces, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

After being beaten back in its initial attempt to capture the capital Kiev, Russia has focused its efforts on driving Ukrainian forces out of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east of the country, where Moscow-backed DPR have been fighting Kyiv since Russia’s first military intervention in Ukraine in 2014.

There was no immediate response from Ukraine on the Russian claim, which, if confirmed, would mark a significant milestone for Moscow on day 130 of the war.