The Ukrainian army's control of Lyman, an important railway hub in the newly annexed Donetsk region, poses a major problem for the Russian forces, which find themselves on the defensive and forced to draw a new front line.
In the east of the Kharkiv region (north-eastern Ukraine), the railways meet at the Kobyansk Vozlovy station and then head south towards Svatovey in the Lugansk region, which was also annexed by Moscow.
Within 6 months of the Russian forces' control of the area, the trains were transporting supplies for the Russian army, which is deployed to the south, through these railways, making this station a vital logistical center for Russian military operations.
With the Ukrainian attack to restore large parts of the region and the withdrawal of Russian forces from it, the situation regarding the supplies of the Russian army changed.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the restoration of Lyman on the front line in the Donetsk region, and confirmed - in a video clip on the occasion of Kyiv's "great victory", two days after Moscow annexed 4 Ukrainian regions controlled partially or completely by its army - that the city "was rid of entirely" of the Russian army.
The Russian army has suffered heavy losses in the past weeks (Reuters)
On the other hand, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces withdrew from the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, but indicated that the military operations continued and the Ukrainian forces incurred great losses. .
Kobyansk Vozlovy is located 90 kilometers north of Lyman along the Oskil River, not far from the city of Kobyansk, which was recaptured by the Ukrainians last week.
Faced with these "setbacks", the Russian army was forced to withdraw hastily towards Svatove, halfway between the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysechhansk, which the Ukrainians had difficulty capturing during the summer.
It is now expected that the Russian forces will try to stop the advance of the Ukrainian army in the depths of the areas announced by Moscow, in Svatove, 30 km from this railway line.
And the French Press Agency quotes one of the Ukrainian soldiers that he and his comrades are not worried about the return of the Russian forces, which they claim they defeated, stressing that Ukraine will continue its offensive as soon as it reorganizes the ranks of its forces in Kobyansk.
In his speech, the soldier explained that the detention of Russian prisoners provided them with a good idea of the Russian plan for the conduct of operations in the region.
He added that reservists had reinforced the ranks of the Russian army after the partial mobilization announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin less than 10 days ago to stop the Kyiv counter-offensive.