Team News Riveting
Russian said Saturday that it had withdrawn its troops from Lyman, a key town in eastern Ukraine that lies in one of the four Ukrainian regions that President Vladimir Putin has announced of annexing during seven months conflict with Ukraine.
“In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, the allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Lyman to more favourable lines,” Russia’s Defense Ministry said in its daily briefing. Earlier in the day showed Ukrainian forces on the outskirts of the town.
“Ukrainian Air Assault Forces are entering Lyman,” Ukraine’s Defense Ministry wrote in a Twitter post. A key supply hub for Russian forces, the stronghold of Lyman has been the site of fierce fighting in recent weeks as Ukraine seeks to press forward with its counteroffensive.
While Ukrainian officials said Saturday that thousands of Russian troops were “encircled” in the town, which had a pre-war population of 20,000, it was unclear if Russian soldiers were actually trapped, or whether they had managed to escape.
The Russian decision to withdraw from Lyman led to immediate criticism from Kremlin allies. The decision to withdraw forces is seen as a setback for the Russia as it came a day after President signed off on the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that included Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. Lyman is part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
