Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed Ukraine has “fully cleared” Russian forces from the key eastern city of Lyman, a day after Moscow admitted its troops had pulled out after they were encircled. Ukraine’s president thanked serving Ukrainian troops for liberating Lyman.
Lyman’s recapture by Ukrainian troops is Russia’s largest battlefield loss since Ukraine’s lightning counteroffensive in the north-eastern Kharkiv region in September. Russian forces had captured Lyman from Ukraine in May and had been using it as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region.
The UK Ministry of Defence has described the city of Lyman as strategically crucial, owing to its “key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defences”. Ukraine’s military has said its forces recaptured the village of Torske near Lyman in the Donetsk region.
