The Russians withdrew from Lyman, in one of the illegally annexed regions only yesterday

After liberating, at the beginning of September, most of the territories occupied by Moscow in the

region , the Ukrainian counter-offensive has been less talked about but has not stopped.

From

, liberated on 10 September, the soldiers of Kiev moved south-east, crossed the

, breaking through the defensive line established by the occupiers after the retreat, entered

, one of the two that make up the Donbass and one of the four

by the Kremlin, up to gradually encircle Lyman.

Twenty thousand inhabitants before the war, occupied by the invaders at the end of last May, Lyman is of

because it is located along the road and the railway to

and

, the two twin cities of the Luhansk region painstakingly conquered by the Russians between June and July last .

In four months of occupation, the Russians have made Lyman a

for operations in the north of the Donetsk region.

The encirclement was successful: this afternoon the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation confirmed that it had

while claiming to have inflicted great losses among Ukrainian soldiers, some of whom appeared

in the first videos .

from the outskirts of the liberated city.

According to estimates reported by various international newspapers, more than

.

In his latest video message published on social networks, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that "the Ukrainian flag is already in Lyman" but that "the fighting is still continuing"

"Lyman is important because it is an opportunity to continue to Kreminna and Severodonetsk, and it is also very important from a psychological point of view," said

, spokesman for the Ukrainian Eastern military command. 

Lyman's release highlights

of the Donbass.

Another possible target of the counter-offensive is probably

, also in the Luhansk region, towards which the forces of Kiev are also moving from another salient east of the Oskil River, the one in correspondence with the city of

.

Now Moscow must decide whether to shift resources from other fronts or whether to continue losing ground in the northern Donbass.

The closest reinforcements are forty kilometers further south, in

, where mercenaries of the Wagner group have been trying in vain for weeks to break through the Ukrainian lines.

One who does not hide that he did not take today's news well is

, head of the Chechen Republic: "I cannot remain silent about what happened in Krasny Liman", he wrote on Telegram calling the city by his Russian name, invoking that the general responsible was demoted to a private and urging Moscow to

in Ukraine

Meanwhile, a Telegram channel close to

reported that Russian officers had orders

limiting losses, so as not to ruin the annexation ceremony of four Ukrainian regions staged yesterday by Putin in Moscow.

Another Russian military blogger, quoted by the

, says reinforcements were

. "

Twitter @TheStudyofWar

Map of the Kharkiv region as at 30 September 2022 of the US Think Tank "Institute for the Study of War"

Telegram @Rybar

Situation in the Lyman area as of October 1, 2022, according to Russian military bloggers known as Rybar