by Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Sunday the eastern town of Lyman was now “completely liberated” from occupation by Russian troops, a day after Moscow announced of a withdrawal of its forces from this railway and logistics hub in the Donetsk region.
“At 12:30 p.m. (09:30 GMT) Lyman is totally released,” he said in a short video posted on his Telegram channel.
The Russian armed forces made no statement on Sunday about the situation in Lyman. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday that it was withdrawing its troops from the area “in connection with the appearance of an encirclement threat”.
On Sunday, Moscow announced that its troops had destroyed seven artillery and missile depots in the Ukrainian regions of Kharkiv, Zaporizhia, Mykolaiv and Donetsk, as well as a guidance radar of an S300 missile system near Nova Kaluha, in the Kherson region.
The recapture of Lyman by Ukrainian forces is an additional setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin, especially since it was announced the day after the ceremony of annexation of four regions of Ukraine covering nearly 20% of the territory. , which include Lyman.
This annexation was denounced by Kyiv and by Western countries.
The Russian army had taken control of Lyman in May and had since used it as a logistics base for its operations in the northern Donetsk region.
Sergi Gaïdaï, the governor of the province of Luhansk, close to that of Donetsk, declared on Sunday that the resumption of Lyman could help the Ukrainian army to reconquer other zones passed under Russian control in its area.
“The liberation of this city in the Donetsk region is one of the key factors for the upcoming disoccupation of the Luhansk region,” he wrote on Telegram.
Volodimir Zelensky also promised other rapid successes in the Donbass.
“Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags has increased in Donbass. There will be even more in a week,” he said in his daily televised address on Saturday.
(Reporting Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk, with Reuters bureaus; French version Marc Angrand)