Kiev artillery strikes at the Lugansk People’s Republic in 2022 claimed the lives of 169 civilians including 21 children, said the LPR Office at the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of issues related to Ukraine’s war crimes (JCCC).   “Six hundred and twenty-four civilians including 50 children became victims of Ukrainian armed formations aggression in 2022; of those, 169 were killed and 455 were wounded. Twenty-one children were killed and another 29 were wounded in artillery attacks,” the JCCC said.   The Ukrainian government launched the so-called anti-terrorist operation against Donbass in April 2014.  The peace talks that began soon thereafter failed to reach tangible results due to Kiev’s position to settle the conflict by force.   On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation to protect Donbass residents from Ukrainian aggression. Prior to that, LPR and DPR Heads Leonid Pasechnik and Denis Pushilin asked the Russian leader to provide military assistance. The LPR militia and Russian armed forces fully liberated the LPR territory from Ukrainian armed formations on July 3.   The Lugansk People’s Republic became a part of Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*ie