Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets overnight with suicide drones, as Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a significant counteroffensive that has reshaped the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Sunday (Kyiv time) that his forces took back an eastern city: "Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors," he said in a video address.
Russia's military didn't comment on Lyman, after announcing Saturday (local time) that it was withdrawing its forces there to more favourable positions.
The British military described the recapture of Lyman as a "significant political setback" for Moscow, and Ukraine appeared to swiftly capitalise on its gains.
It’s a significant victory for Ukraine in the Donetsk region. (Source: 1News)
Hours after Zelensky's announcement, Ukrainian media shared an image of Ukrainian troops carrying the country's yellow-and-blue flag in front of a statue marking the village of Torske, 15km east of Lyman and within sight of the Russian-held Luhansk region.
Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level. It also prompted Ukraine to formally apply for NATO membership, a bid that won backing from nine central and eastern European NATO members fearful that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too.
Shortly later, a video posted online showed one Ukrainian soldier saying that Kyiv's forces had begun to target the city of Kreminna, just across the border in Luhansk. Outgoing artillery could be heard in the background. Russian military correspondents also acknowledged Ukrainian attacks targeting Kreminna.
In another online photo, a Ukrainian soldier stood before a giant watermelon landmark just south of the village of Novovorontsovka on the banks of the Dnieper River, along the Russian-controlled province of Kherson's northern edge. A Ukrainian flag flew above the statue as several apparently deactivated landmines lay beside it.
While Ukrainian forces did not immediately acknowledge a breakthrough, writers close to the Russian military have described a new offensive by Kyiv in the Kherson region.
In southern Ukraine, Zelensky's hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday (Kyiv time), the regional governor said. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down five Iranian-made drones, while two others made it through air defences.
Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has embarrassed the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin's war.
Lyman, which Ukraine recaptured by encircling Russian troops, is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed after forcing what was left of the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.
In his nightly address, Zelensky said: "Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more."
In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has "a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defences."
The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Recent developments have raised fears of an all-out conflict between Russia and the West.
Putin frames the recent Ukrainian gains as a US-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date.
The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, and calling on all 30 members of the US-led security bloc to ramp up military aid for Kyiv.
Germany's defence minister on Sunday (local time) announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armoured howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The weapons will be financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany,
On Saturday (NZ time), Russia moved ahead with steps meant to make its land grab look like a legal process aimed at helping people allegedly persecuted by Kyiv, with rubber-stamp approval by the Constitutional Court and draft laws being pushed through the Kremlin-friendly parliament.
Outside Russia, the Kremlin's actions have been widely denounced as violating international law, with multiple EU countries summoning Russian ambassadors since Putin signed annexation treaties with Moscow-backed officials in southern and eastern Ukraine.
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