The Ukrainian military says it has shot down five Russian planes and one helicopter in the Luhansk area, news agency MIA reports. Meanwhile, separatists in Ukraine said they had seized the small towns of Stanytsia Luhanska and Schastia, while the Kyiv authorities confirm that pro-Russian forces have advanced into territory controlled by government troops.
Russian military forces have been shelling eastern Ukraine, but the situation is “under control,” the General Staff of the Ukrainian army wrote on Facebook, adding that there have been no Russian troop landings in the port city of Odessa.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has declared a state of war for the entire country after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a military operation.
