dpa
Moscow
Russian forces have pulled out of the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Lyman, Russia’s military confirmed on Saturday, after dangers grew that a force of about 5,000 Russian troops could get trapped behind Ukrainian lines.
After intense fighting, Ukrainian forces gained control of the city on Saturday. Ukrainian units hoisted the blue and yellow national flag in Lyman.
“The occupiers trapped in Lyman asked the Russian command to allow them to leave the city, but were refused,” Serhii Haidai, Ukrainian governor of Luhansk, had said earlier.
The Ukrainians had attacked from the west as well as from the north and south, and placed the Russians’ only supply and retreat link to the east under artillery fire. How many Russian soldiers died or were taken prisoner is unclear.
In recent weeks, Russia has experienced a series of military setbacks in its seven-month-old war on its neighbour, as Ukrainian forces have surged.
But a series of referendums - conducted in four Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and derided as sham votes by the West - means that Moscow now considers much of eastern Ukraine to be Russian territory. Thus, attacks into that region could be considered an attack on Russia by the Kremlin.
Russia moved to annex the four territories in a ceremony on Friday. The move is not recognized internationally. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed that Kiev’s forces will retake the annexed territories.
Meanwhile the Ukrainian nuclear authority on Saturday accused Russian forces of kidnapping the head of the occupied Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant.
The director general of the plant, Ihor Murashov, was dragged out of his car while at the site and taken blindfolded to an unknown location, said Petro Kotin, president of Ukraine’s state nuclear company Energoatom.
“There is no knowledge of his fate,” Kotin wrote on the Telegram messaging app. He urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to campaign for Murashov’s release.
Russian authorities later informed the IAEA that Murashov had been “temporarily detained to answer questions,” according to an IAEA spokesperson in Vienna.
Kotin accused Russia of nuclear terrorism against the management and staff of the power plant. Murashov, who bears the main responsibility for the safe functioning and nuclear safety of the plant, must be released immediately, he said. Kotin also called on IAEA head Rafael Grossi to press for Murashov’s release.
The IAEA contacted the Russian authorities and demanded clarification.
Elsewhere, at least 24 people, including 13 children, are dead after Russian forces fired on a convoy of civilian vehicles trying to escape hostilities near the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk, according to Ukrainian officials.
The region remains heavily contested, even after Russian troops were driven from their fortifications last month.
The Kremlin offered no comment on the incident. Reports out of Ukraine cannot be independently verified.
