ANALYSIS
The Fall of Luhansk Puts Putin to the Test
On March 25th, one month after the battle for Hostomel Airport and the failed Russian offensive to capture the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and the strategic Northeastern city of Kharkiv, President Putin announced a strategic shift to focus his nearly 300,000 troops to "liberate" the Donbass Coal Basin oblasts of Luhansk and Donetsk. Each Oblast is home to a self-declared breakaway republic supported by the Russian Federation since 2014.