Russia confirmed it captured the Ukrainian city of Lyman on Saturday. The Russian army said that it liberated the town from Ukrainian nationalists.
“Following the joint actions of the units of the militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian armed forces, the town of Lyman has been entirely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists,” the defense ministry said in a statement accessed by news agency AFP.
Lyman is a key city as roads to west of Ukraine and the major cities there goes through this city which was once a railway manufacturing hub.
Earlier on Friday, Donetsk oblast governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said that Ukrainian forces withdrew to a new line of defense in the face of Russian attacks.
Lyman is also important as it will give an upper hand to the Russian army in the battle for Donbass.
The UK defense ministry said Lyman is ‘strategically important’ for Russia as it will allow them access to important rail and road bridges over the Siverskyi Donets river, news agency The Kyiv Independent said.
Lyman lies between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the capital of the Ukrainian-controlled part of Donetsk.
Meanwhile, Russia also has intensified its bombardment of Severodonetsk and as of Saturday morning, troops of both sides are fighting on the streets of the city.
Serhiy Hayday, the head of Luhansk regional military administration, told news agency CNN that the Russians are bombarding the city and
“The Russian army is destroying the city, shelling with all kinds of weapons. Russian troops entered the outskirts of the city, the Mir Hotel. We can’t get them out of the hotel yet, but they have a lot of dead. Our guys are holding them back,” Hayday was quoted as saying by news agency CNN.
Russian forces are likely using the same playbook it used in Mariupol and is trying to encircle the defenders of Severodonetsk as it targets the small group of Ukrainian fighting in a pocket.
With 10,000 troops, Russia has a numerical advantage, according to Hayday, who also said that Russia is not only using its army but also conscripts from the self-proclaimed separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, troops loyal to Chechen Republic leader Ramzan Kadyrov and soldiers from private military companies.
Russia is also attempting to close Severodonetsk to Ukrainian reinforcement. Only cars can pass through and no trucks can enter.
Meanwhile, Russian forces have entirely closed down Kherson, Russian state-run media RIA Novosti said.
Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Russian-installed administration said that Kherson’s border crossings with the Ukrainian regions of Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk have been closed.
Anyone seeking to cross Kherson to come to Ukraine is being sent to Crimea. “The border is now closed for security reasons.
We do not advise travel to Ukraine at all, regardless of the pretext,” Stremousov warned. Travel from Kherson to Crimea or Russian-controlled areas of Zaporizhzhia is possible.
(with inputs from AFP, CNN and The Kyiv Independent)
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