RUSSIA: Western nations have been supplying Ukraine with a variety of weapons, escalating the situation in the midst of Moscow's special military operation. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated on Friday that peace talks are pointless if the West hopes to resolve the Ukrainian crisis militarily. Meanwhile, Russian forces in Ukraine continue to advance: recently, Russian troops and Donbass militia liberated the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic, seizing control of the city of Lisichansk. While the Ukrainian military is being expelled from Donbass, the soldiers continue to shell cities in the region with weapons supplied by the West, resulting in numerous civilian casualties. According to the governor of Luhansk, Russian forces continue to mercilessly shell areas of the Luhansk region in order to advance into Donetsk. "They don't stop firing on Bilohorivka and Zolotarivka from all types of heavy weapons," Serhiy Haidai said of the two border villages. "They hit houses, every building that appears to them to be a potential fortification," he explained. "They do not count personal losses and do not feel sorry for the residents of the region in order to advance." On Sunday, Russian forces took control of Luhansk after Ukraine's troops withdrew from the region's last strongholds of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk and are making their way into neighbouring Donetsk. Ukraine Investigating 21,000 War Crimes Against Russia