Ukrainian soldiers drive a tank towards Siversk, near Lyman (Ukraine), October 1, 2022. INNA VARENYTSIA / AP
On Saturday, October 1, the Ukrainian army entered Lyman, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine in the Donetsk region. “The Ukrainian flag is already flying over Lyman,” confirmed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in his daily address on Saturday evening.
Lyman has been under Moscow control since the end of May and is an important railway junction, which in particular made it possible to supply Russian troops.
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“Fighting continues, but there is no trace of a pseudo-referendum there,” Volodymyr Zelensky continued, referring to the referendums on the annexation of four Ukrainian regions, including Donetsk, held this week by Russia and harshly condemned by Kyiv became the west.
The capture of Lyman was announced by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Twitter this afternoon: “Ukrainian air raid forces are entering Lyman in the Donetsk region. In a minute-long video accompanying the embassy, two Ukrainian soldiers can be seen waving and then hanging the light blue and yellow national flag next to the “Lyman” sign at the city’s entrance.
Ukrainian air raid forces enter Lyman in Donetsk region. #UAarmy has and always will have the deciding vote… https://t.co/l8sSAcbms7
“Allied troops threatened with encirclement were withdrawn from Lyman towards more favorable lines,” he said in a press release from the Russian Defense Ministry. Earlier on Saturday, the Ukrainian army claimed to have “encircled” several thousand Russian soldiers in this city in the Donetsk region, which was annexed by Russia on Friday.
Moscow retreats to southern Ukraine
According to experts from the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, Russia is now making defense of the occupied territories in southern Ukraine its priority. “The decision not to reinforce the vulnerable Kupyansk or Lyman front lines was almost certainly made by Putin, not the military command, and suggests that Putin is much more concerned with holding the strategic ground of Kherson Oblast and Zaporizhia than than from the Luhansk Oblast.”, the institute specified in an analysis published on Saturday evening.
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In response to the Russian withdrawal from the city, the leader of Russia’s Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, denounced the “nepotism” reigning in the Russian army and called on Moscow to use “low-power nuclear weapons” in Ukraine without “account.” of the ‘Western American Community'”.
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