Ukraine: surrounded, the Russian army announces “to have withdrawn” from Lyman in the east of the country


The Russian army announced on Saturday that it had “withdrawn” from the town of Lyman, an important railway junction in eastern Ukraine that Ukrainian soldiers had said they had “surrounded” in recent hours. “Threatened with encirclement, Allied troops were withdrawn from Lyman to more favorable lines,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. Earlier, the Ukrainians had claimed to “enter” Lyman, located in the Donetsk region, annexed Friday by Moscow.

Towards a key victory for Ukrainian forces

The Ukrainian army entered Saturday in Lyman, a strategic city in eastern Ukraine, in the Donetsk region, whose annexation the day before by Moscow was strongly condemned by kyiv and Westerners. kyiv also condemned the “illegal detention” of the boss of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant (south), Igor Murachov, arrested for a reason still unknown on Friday by Russia, which controls the site. The announcement was made in the middle of the afternoon: “Ukrainian air assault forces are entering Lyman, Donetsk region,” the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on Twitter.

In a one-minute video that accompanies the message, two Ukrainian soldiers are seen waving and then hanging the light blue and yellow national flag next to the “Lyman” sign at the entrance to the city. “We unfurl our national flag and place it on our territory. Lyman will always be part of Ukraine,” said one of the two soldiers, smiling.

“Threatened with being surrounded, the Allied troops were withdrawn from Lyman to more favorable lines,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement. According to a spokesman, “about 5,000-5,500 Russians” had been entrenched in and around Lyman in recent days. Taking Lyman entirely would be a key victory for kyiv, with the conquest of this important railroad junction in the Donetsk region annexed by Russia on Friday.

A region annexed by Russia

Following the annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Moscow, kyiv announced to seize the International Court of Justice (ICJ), “urging the Court to take up the case as soon as possible”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also announced that he would “sign Ukraine’s candidacy for accelerated NATO membership”, a decision supported by the United States and Canada.

“We strongly support the entry into NATO of countries which wish to join and which can bring their capacities to it”, declared the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while recalling “the process to be followed” for the candidate States. . Friday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin for his part concluded a day of ceremonies for the annexation of Ukrainian territories. “The victory will be ours,” he said, microphone in hand, in front of several thousand people gathered for a festive concert on Red Square in Moscow.

An “illegal detention” of the region according to kyiv

Leaders of European Union countries issued a statement on Friday “rejecting” and “condemning” the “illegal annexation” of four Ukrainian regions. NATO denounced ‘illegitimate’ annexation, while in New York the UN Security Council considered a resolution condemning ‘pseudo-annexations’ in Ukraine, which was immediately blocked by a Russian veto . US President Joe Biden has sworn that the United States and its allies will not be “intimidated” by Vladimir Putin.

The recent military successes on the Ukrainian side have also prompted the Russian president to decree a “partial” mobilization of hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists, in an attempt to stem the dynamics of kyiv. On the ground, 22 civilians including 10 children were found dead, shot dead, in the Kharkiv region (north-eastern Ukraine), according to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office on Saturday. AFP had seen at least 11 people dead on Friday at the site.

Ukraine has also condemned the “illegal detention” of the general manager of the Zaporijjia nuclear power plant (south), Igor Murachov, arrested for a reason still unknown on Friday by Russia, which controls the site. kyiv called for his “immediate release” in the face of “a new act of state terrorism on the part of Russia”.

According to the boss of Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom, Petro Kotin, Igor Murachov was arrested by a “Russian patrol” around 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) as he was traveling from the plant to the city of Ernogodar, controlled by the Russians. Still according to him, the vehicle transporting the director of the plant was stopped and the latter was extracted from the car then “drove, blindfolded, to an unknown destination”. The fate of Igor Murachov was not known on Saturday afternoon.



Source link -75