Russian proxies claim control of key town in east Ukraine
Gulf Times
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy attends a joint news conference with Poland's President Andrzej Duda, amid Russia's invasion, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 22, 2022.
Russia's separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine claimed full control of the important battlefield town of Lyman on Friday, and Ukraine appeared to concede it, as Moscow presses its biggest advance for weeks.
Lyman, site of a key railway hub, has been a major front line as Russian forces press down from the north, one of three directions from which they have been attacking Ukraine's industrial Donbas region. The pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic separatists said they were now in full control of it.
Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, appeared to confirm the fall of Lyman in an interview overnight, and said the battle there showed that Moscow was improving its tactics.
"According to unverified data, we lost the town of Lyman. The Russian army - this must be verified - captured it," Arestovych said in a video posted on social media.
