Blast May Have Killed 100 Russian Soldiers in Occupied Luhansk: Governor - Newsweek

A Ukrainian regional governor in the country's war-torn east says that up to 100 Russian soldiers could have died in an explosion in the recently occupied city of Lysychansk.

Gaidai told the news outlet that Russian troops were conducting a large offensive from the side of an oil refinery and suggested that "some careless smoking" may have caused the deadly explosion in Lysychansk, which Russia claimed last month to have "liberated" as the last major holdout in the Luhansk administrative district.

But faced with unexpectedly stiff resistance from the Ukrainian military, Russia turned its attention to Ukraine's east, which is home to a large population of Russian speakers in addition to two separatist groups aligned with the Kremlin.

"This trend is particularly dangerous to Russian forces seeking to recruit still more new soldiers from Luhansk Oblast to make up for recent losses," researchers from the think tank wrote.