Ukraine says its forces reach Lyman, encircle Russian troops
India Today
The capture of Lyman would be a major setback for Russia after President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of Donetsk, along with three other regions.
Ukrainian forces reached the entrance of the eastern bastion of Lyman on Saturday after encircling thousands of Russian troops, Kyiv said, in a battlefield rebuttal to the Kremlin a day after it proclaimed a swathe of territory to be part of Russia.
The capture of Lyman would be a major setback for Russia after President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of Donetsk region, along with three other regions, at a ceremony in Moscow on Friday condemned by Kyiv and the West as a farce.
"The Russian grouping in the area of Lyman is surrounded," the spokesperson, Serhii Cherevatyi, said on television.
The Russian Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Russia's last operational update was on Friday evening. On Saturday, the ministry's Telegram channel published a series of congratulatory messages, including one from Putin, to mark an army holiday, Ground Forces Day.
Russia has used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its fall would be Ukraine's biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
The Ukrainian military spokesperson said the capture of Lyman would allow Kyiv to advance into the Luhansk region, whose full capture Moscow announced at the beginning of July after weeks of slow, grinding advances.
