Ukraine announces full control of the Lyman Logistics Center
Ukraine announced on Sunday that it had regained full control of the eastern logistics hub Lyman, marking Kiev's biggest battlefield victory in weeks, which a senior official said could provide a springboard for further gains in the east.
"As of 1230 (0930 GMT), Lyman has been completely cleared," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday in a short video clip on his Telegram channel.
There was no comment from the Russian armed forces today regarding the city's situation.
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry said it would withdraw troops from the area "because there is a threat to besiege it".
Russian President Vladimir Putin's latest setback came just a day after he announced the annexation of four regions representing nearly a fifth of Ukraine, including Donetsk, where Lyman is located, as well as placing the annexed regions under Russia's nuclear umbrella.
Kyiv and the West condemned the move, which Russia has worked hard to formalize, as an illegal farce.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the Luhansk region adjacent to Donetsk, said that controlling Lyman could help Ukraine regain lost lands in his region, which Moscow declared in full in early July after weeks of fierce battles.
"The liberation of this city in Donetsk will be a major factor in the further reduction of the occupied territories in Luhansk," he wrote on Telegram on Sunday.
Yesterday, Zelensky pledged more rapid successes in the Donbass region, which includes the largely Russian-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
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