KYIV, Oct 1 (Reuters) – The Ukrainian army surrounded several thousand Russian troops in the eastern Ukrainian town of Lyman, a key stronghold for Moscow, in an ongoing operation, a spokesman said on Saturday.
The capture of Lyman, a city that the Russian army uses as a logistics and transport base for its military operations in the north of the Donetsk region, would constitute another major setback for the Kremlin, whose objective is to control the totality of the Donbass region.
“The Russian regrouping in the Lyman region is surrounded,” declared Serhii Cherevati, spokesman for the Ukrainian forces for the east of the country.
“Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbass. It is an opportunity to advance towards Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and it is very important psychologically”, he added.
Russian Lyman forces number between 5,000 and 5,500 soldiers but the encircled troops could be fewer due to the losses suffered and the attempts of some units to escape the encirclement, he said. (Report Pavel Polityuk, French version Marc Angrand)