Ukrainian army declared they had retaken Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a humiliating defeat that caused a close confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge for the use of low-grade nuclear weapons.
On Saturday, Putin declared the takeover of about a fifth of Ukraine, including Donetsk, where Lyman is located, and placed the regions under Russia’s nuclear umbrella. The grandiose ceremony was criticised as an illegitimate sham by Kyiv and the West.
Ukrainian military announced the capture in a video shot outside the town hall in Lyman’s centre and shared on social media.
‘Dear Ukrainians, today the Ukrainian armed forces… freed and took control of Lyman, Donetsk area,’ one of the soldiers said. At the end of the film, a number of troops applaud and throw Russian flags off the building’s roof, replacing them with a Ukrainian flag.
Russia’s defence ministry had declared hours earlier that it was withdrawing soldiers from the area ‘in line with the emergence of an encirclement threat.’
Lyman had fallen to Russian forces in May, who had utilised it as a supply and transport base for their operations in the Donetsk region’s north. Its seizure is Ukraine’s largest combat gain since last month’s rapid counteroffensive in the northern Kharkiv region.
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