Lugansk People’s Republic Acting Head Leonid Pasechnik has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to exempt LPR coalminers from military service.   “In order to have people work there (at a state-owned coal mining enterprise), a  decision is needed to provide exemptions from callups to LPR militia units or Russian armed forces,” Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Pasechnik as saying.   He said that 58 percent of coalminers had gone off to war since the beginning of the special military operation in February 2022. “They are coal face workers, young guys,” he said.   “For example, we have a three-member team working at a coalmine which must employ more than 300,” Pasechnik said adding that the only coal producer, “Vostokugol” Republican Fuel Company, is “in the red.”   The LPR leader also raised the issue of employment of the coalminers who will be returning from frontlines after demobilization.   “Those miners who are fighting today will come back. They will come and ask me this question:  “We’ve shed our blood and now we have nowhere to work." We have to give them jobs because they are our people and we have to look after them,” he said.   The Russian president and the LPR acting head met in Moscow. Pasechnik was earlier decorated with the Order “For Merit to the Fatherland,” 1st Class, at a ceremony in the Kremlin.   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 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.   The Lugansk People’s Republic became a part of Russia on September 30, 2022 following the unification referendum.*i*ie