From Reuters:
“Russia abandons Ukrainian
bastion, Putin ally suggests nuclear response”
Russia said on Saturday its
troops had abandoned a key bastion in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging
defeat that prompted one of President Vladimir Putin's most hawkish allies to
call for Russia to consider resorting to low-grade nuclear weapons. The fall of
Lyman came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian
regions - including Donetsk, where Lyman is located - and placed them under
Russia's nuclear umbrella, at a ceremony that was condemned by Kyiv and the
West as an illegitimate farce. "In connection with the creation of a
threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of
Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines," Russia's defence ministry said,
using the Russian name of the town. The statement ended hours of official
silence from Moscow after Ukraine first said it had surrounded thousands of
Russian troops in the area and then that its forces were inside the town of
Lyman. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the southern Chechnya region who describes
himself as a footsoldier of Putin, said he felt he had to speak out after the
loss of the territory. "In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should
be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and
the use of low-yield nuclear weapons," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram. Other
top Putin allies, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested
Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov's call was the most
urgent and explicit. Putin said last week he was not bluffing when he said he
was prepared to defend Russia's "territorial integrity" with all
available means, and on Friday made clear this extended to the new regions that
Moscow has claimed. Washington says it would respond decisively to any use of
nuclear weapons and has spelled out to Moscow the "catastrophic
consequences" it would face.
"WE'RE ALREADY IN
LYMAN" The Russian defence ministry's statement made no mention of its
troops being encircled at Lyman, diverging starkly from Ukraine's version of
events. "The Russian grouping in the area of Lyman is
surrounded," Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern forces,
said hours earlier. He said that Russia had 5,000 to 5,500 troops at
Lyman but the number of encircled troops could be lower because of casualties.
He confirmed Ukraine was inside the town later that afternoon. "We're
already in Lyman, but there are battles," he said. Two grinning
Ukrainian soldiers taped the yellow-and-blue national flag on to the
"Lyman" welcome sign at the town's entrance in Donetsk region's north,
a video posted by the president's chief of staff showed. "Oct. 1.
We're unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land. Lyman will be
Ukraine," one of the soldiers said, standing atop a military vehicle. Neither
side's battlefield assertions could be independently verified.
LOGISTICS HUB In his
comments, Kadyrov launched a blistering attack on Colonel-General Alexander
Lapin, the commander overseeing Lyman, who he derided as a
"mediocrity". Kadyrov also said he personally had warned Russia's
army chief, General Valery Gerasimov, of a looming disaster. "The
general assured me he had no doubts about Lapin's talent for leadership and did
not think a retreat was possible in ... Lyman and its surroundings," he
said. Russia has used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its
operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its capture is Ukraine's biggest
battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv
region last month. The Ukrainian military has said its capture would
allow Kyiv to advance into the Luhansk region, whose full capture Moscow
announced at the beginning of July after weeks of slow, grinding advances. "Lyman
is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the
Ukrainian Donbas. It is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and
Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important," Cherevatyi
said.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions
together make up the wider Donbas region that has been a major focus for Russia
since soon after the start of Moscow's invasion on Feb. 24 in what it called a
"special military operation" to demilitarise its neighbour. Putin proclaimed
the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson
and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian land in Friday's ceremony - a swathe of
territory equal to about 18% of Ukraine's total surface land area. Ukraine and
its Western allies branded Russia's move as illegal. Kyiv vowed to continue
liberating its land of Russian forces and said it would not hold peace talks
with Moscow while Putin remained as president. Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges,
a former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe, said a Russian defeat in Lyman
after Putin's declaration would be a major political and military embarrassment
for the Russian leader. "This puts in bright lights that his claim is
illegitimate and cannot be enforced," he said. It remained to be seen how
Ukrainian commanders would exploit the rout, he said, adding it likely would
further erode the morale of Moscow’s troops holding other Ukrainian territory.
^ Just 1 day after Russia
illegally annexed 15% more of Ukrainian Territory the Ukrainians liberated
Lyman (Лиман) Ukraine - which is in the newly annexed areas - and surrounded
5,000 Russian Soldiers.
Lyman is a city of 28,000 but is
a logistics and transport hub so very important to both sides. ^
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