Things are not going well for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. On September 30 he announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions that are partially controlled by Russia. Yet less than a day later, Ukrainian troops captured the strategic town of Lyman in the north of the annexed Donetsk region.
Before the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma, could even approve the annexation on October 3, the Russian front in the southern Kherson region had collapsed in parts. These successes showed how tenuous the Kremlin’s grip was on the regions it had proclaimed to be “forever Russian”.
By the morning of October 4, Ukrainian forces had advanced some 30km beyond their positions over the weekend, indicating that there was still significant momentum behind their counteroffensive.
