Ukraine celebrates capturing key city, Putin ally mulls attainable nuclear response By Reuters

By Tom Balmforth and Pavel Polityuk

KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops mentioned they’d taken the important thing bastion of Lyman in occupied japanese Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a detailed ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin to name for the attainable use of low-grade nuclear weapons.

The seize on Saturday got here only a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of practically a fifth of Ukraine – together with Donetsk, the place Lyman is positioned – and positioned the areas below Russia’s nuclear umbrella. Kyiv and the West condemned the ornate ceremony as an illegitimate farce.

Ukrainian troopers introduced the seize in a video recorded exterior the city council constructing within the centre of Lyman and posted on social media by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s workplace.

“Expensive Ukrainians – as we speak the armed forces of Ukraine … liberated and took management of the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk area,” one of many troopers says. On the finish of the video, a gaggle of troopers throw Russian flags down from the constructing’s roof and lift a Ukrainian flag of their place.

Hours earlier, Russia’s defence ministry had introduced it was pulling troops out of the realm “in reference to the creation of a menace of encirclement”.

Russia had used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations within the north of the Donetsk area. Its seize is Ukraine’s greatest battlefield acquire for the reason that lightning counteroffensive within the northeastern Kharkiv area final month.

In search of to capitalise on Ukraine’s current positive factors, Zelenskiy promised extra fast successes within the Donbas, which covers the Donetsk and Luhansk areas which are largely below Russian management.

“Over the previous week, the variety of Ukrainian flags in Donbas has elevated. There will likely be much more per week’s time,” the president mentioned in a night video handle.

U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin cheered Lyman’s seize, saying it will create new issues for Russia’s army. “We’re very inspired by what we’re seeing proper now,” Austin instructed a information convention on Saturday.

Austin famous that Lyman was positioned throughout provide traces that Russia has used to push its troops and materiel all the way down to the south and to the west, because the Kremlin presses its greater than seven-month-long invasion of Ukraine.

“With out these routes, will probably be tougher. So it presents a kind of a dilemma for the Russians going ahead.”

Austin didn’t say whether or not he thought Ukraine’s seize of Lyman would possibly immediate Russian escalation, though U.S. officers have broadly denounced Russia’s nuclear rhetoric in current days and President Joe Biden has publicly urged Putin to not use nuclear weapons.

Ukraine’s successes have infuriated Putin allies similar to Ramzan Kadyrov, the chief of Russia’s southern Chechnya area.

“In my private opinion, extra drastic measures ought to be taken, proper as much as the declaration of martial regulation within the border areas and the usage of low-yield nuclear weapons,” Kadyrov wrote on Telegram earlier than Zelenskiy spoke.

Different high officers, together with former President Dmitry Medvedev, have instructed Russia could must resort to nuclear weapons, however Kadyrov’s name was essentially the most pressing and express.

Putin mentioned final week that he was not bluffing when he mentioned he was ready to defend Russia’s “territorial integrity” with all out there means, and on Friday made clear this prolonged to the brand new areas claimed by Moscow.

Washington says it will reply decisively to any use of nuclear weapons.

Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s japanese forces, mentioned earlier than the seize that Russia had 5,000 to five,500 troops at Lyman however the quantity encircled may very well be decrease.

Reuters couldn’t confirm both aspect’s battlefield assertions.

LOGISTICS HUB

Ukraine says taking Lyman will permit it to advance into the Luhansk area, whose full seize Moscow introduced in early July after weeks of grinding advances.

“Lyman is essential as a result of it’s the subsequent step in direction of the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas,” Cherevatyi mentioned. “It is a chance to go additional to Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and it’s psychologically essential.”

The Donbas has been a significant focus for Russia since quickly it launched the invasion on Feb. 24 that Putin calls a “particular army operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its smaller neighbour.

The areas Putin claimed as Russian – the Donbas areas of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern areas of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia – type a swath of territory equal to about 18% of Ukraine’s whole floor land space. Kyiv vowed to proceed liberating its land of Russian forces.

Retired U.S. Military Basic Ben Hodges mentioned a Russian defeat in Lyman represented a significant political and army embarrassment for Putin.

“This places in brilliant lights that his declare is illegitimate and can’t be enforced,” he mentioned.

Germany mentioned it’s going to ship the primary of 4 superior IRIS-T air defence methods to Ukraine in coming days to assist push back drone assaults.