LONDON, September 30 (Portal) – Ukrainian troops have taken two villages very close to the east Russian-held Lyman fortress, officials said on Friday, in the clearest sign the town could fall soon.
Lyman in the Donetsk region has served for months as a logistics and transportation hub anchoring Russian operations in the north of the region.
His capture would be Kiev’s biggest win since a Blitz counter-offensive retook parts of the Kharkiv region this month.
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In an evening video address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the troops for capturing the village of Yampil, some 12 km (7.5 miles) southeast of Lyman.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said its forces had taken Drobysheve, some 10 km (6 miles) northwest of Lyman.
“We have significant results in the east of our country…everyone heard what is happening in Lyman,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.
“These are steps that mean a lot to us,” he added, but gave no details.
The head of the Russian-backed administration in the Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said earlier on Friday that Lyman was “half surrounded” by the Ukrainian army and that the news from the front was “alarming”.
In a message published on Telegram, Pushilin admitted that his forces no longer fully controlled either Drobysheve or Yampil.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed Russian rule over Donetsk and three other provinces where Moscow has seized territory during its seven-month invasion of its neighbor. The annexations were roundly dismissed as illegal by Ukraine and its western allies and condemned by the head of the United Nations.
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Portal reporting; Editing by David Ljunggren, Grant McCool and Bill Berkrot
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