Ukraine fights for full control of key city Lyman

Lyman is located in one of the four Ukrainian regions that Vladimir Putin on Friday declared part of Russia.

Red Cross workers carry the body of woman killed in a residential building that was shelled in the city of Mykolaiv on Saturday. Picture: AFP

Ukraine said late on Saturday its forces had begun moving into the key eastern city of Lyman, located in one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed, with President Volodymyr Zelensky pledging more areas would follow within the week.

The latest development – a feature of Kyiv’s weeks-long counteroffensive against Moscow’s invasion – comes amid accusations Russia killed 24 civilians in the eastern Kharkiv region.

The recapture of Lyman, which Moscow’s forces pummelled for weeks to control this northern spring, would mark the first Ukrainian military victory in territory that the Kremlin has claimed as its own and has vowed to defend by all possible means.

Ukraine’s defence ministry announced its forces were “entering” Lyman in the eastern Donetsk region after the army said it had “encircled” several thousand Russian troops near the town.

The ministry posted a video of soldiers holding up a yellow and blue Ukrainian flag near a sign with the city’s name.

“Throughout this week, more Ukrainian flags have been raised in the Donbas,” Mr Zelensky said in his evening address. “There will be even more in a week.”

Ukrainian armed forces make a statement in front of Lyman Town Administration office. Picture: 81 Airborne Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces/via Reuters

Shortly after Ukraine’s announcement on Lyman, Russia’s defence ministry said it had “withdrawn” troops from the city “to more favourable lines”.

With Russian losses mounting, experts have warned that President Vladimir Putin could turn to nuclear weapons to defend territory – an option floated by a Putin ally.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons after Moscow’s troops were forced out of Lyman.

“In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and use of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Mr Kadyrov said on Telegram.

Mr Kadyrov governs Russia’s Muslim-majority Chechnya Republic with an iron fist.

The developments came a day after Mr Putin staged a grand Kremlin ceremony celebrating the annexation of the four Ukrainian territories.

In a call with Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin condemned what he called the “sham referenda”, according to a readout from his spokesman, and reiterated “the US will never recognise these illegal and illegitimate attempts at annexation”.

The four territories create a land corridor between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014. Together the five regions make up about 20 per cent of Ukraine, where Kyiv in recent weeks has been clawing back territory.

The Moscow-appointed heads of Kherson region Vladimir Saldo and Zaporizhzhia region Yevgeny Balitsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin and Lugansk separatist leader Leonid Pasechnik join hands after signing treaties formally annexing four regions of Ukraine occupied by Russian troops. Picture: AFP

Elsewhere in the south on Saturday, German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht visited the port city of Odesa. Kyiv has been urging her country to send battle tanks to aid in its counter-attack, but the German government has so far refused.

Also on Saturday, Ukrainian officials accused Russia of killing 24 civilians, including 13 children, in an attack on a road convoy near a recently recaptured town in Kharkiv. On Friday Ukrainian troops had shown reporters a group of vehicles riddled with bullet holes and several corpses in civilian clothes, a short distance east of the recently recaptured town of Kupiansk.

A Ukrainian official said the death toll of a Russian attack on a separate civilian convoy near the city of Zaporizhzhia on Friday had risen to 30 civilians and one police officer.

Kyiv also called for the immediate release of the chief of the Moscow-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, condemning his “illegal detention” by the Russians. Ihor Murashov was leaving the plant on Friday when he was detained and “driven in an unknown direction” while blindfolded, Ukraine’s nuclear agency Energoatom said.

Zaporizhzhia – Europe’s largest nuclear energy facility – has been at the centre of tensions, with Moscow and Kyiv accusing each other of strikes on and near the plant, raising fears of an atomic disaster.

Following Friday’s annexation, Washington announced “severe” new sanctions against Russian officials and the defence industry, and said G7 allies support imposing “costs” on any nation backing annexation.

Mr Zelensky urged NATO to grant his country fast-track membership. He also vowed never to hold talks with Russia as long as Mr Putin was in power. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg slammed the annexation as “illegal and illegitimate”, but remained noncommittal after Ukraine said it was applying to join the alliance.

AFP