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dpa
Kiev/Moscow
The Russian military said on Saturday it had gained complete control over Lyman, a small but strategically important town in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region.
Separatists allied with Moscow had already reported the capture on Friday, and on Saturday the Ukrainian General Staff of the armed forces had all but admitted the town had fallen.
“Through the joint action of units of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Russian Armed Forces, the town of Krasny Liman was completely liberated from Ukrainian nationalists,” Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Saturday.
Krasny Liman is an old name for Lyman that dates back to Soviet times.
Lyman is home to a major railroad junction and road links to the population centres of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk to the east and Kramatorsk to the south-west.
British military intelligence said that Russia had captured “most” of Lyman, “in what is likely a preliminary operation for the next stage of Russia’s Donbass offensive.”
“In the coming days, Russian units in the area are likely to prioritize forcing a crossing of the [nearby Siverskyy Donets] river,” the agency wrote on Saturday in its regular Twitter update on the war.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian General Staff said the Russian side was now shelling two villages south of the town - Ozerne and Dibrova - with grenade and rocket launchers, indicating a expansion of the front lines from the north.
A day earlier it had reported that fighting was taking place inside the town itself and that Russian troops were attempting to force the Ukrainian defenders out of it.
Lyman sits west of Sievierodonetsk, the easternmost Ukrainian city still under Ukrainian control and where fierce battles are taking place as Russia aims to encircle and ultimately cut off the area.
Sievierodonetsk was the target of Russian attacks overnight but advances on the city and its suburbs were repelled, the Ukrainian General Staff’s situation report said.
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29/05/2022
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