The Ukrainians are advancing on various fronts and want to gain as much territory as possible before the winter. In Moscow they are hoping for the effect of partial mobilization, but their nerves are on edge.
Ukrainian soldiers pose in front of an administrative building in the liberated city of Liman.
When Russia’s army fled the Kyiv area in the spring, Moscow sold it as a “goodwill gesture” and the chaotic retreat from Kupyansk and Izyum as “regrouping”. But when the fall of the strategically important city of Liman could no longer be kept secret on Saturday afternoon, the military leadership for once dispensed with euphemisms: “In view of the danger of encirclement, the Allied troops were withdrawn,” said the Ministry of Defense.