Ukraine troops raise flag over liberated Lyman as Russian soldiers abandon their posts
UKRAINIAN troops have advanced into the Russian-held city of Lyman, with Vladimir Putin on the verge of another stunning military defeat as his own troops abandon their posts.
Ukrainian troops raise flag as they enter Lyman
Victorious Ukrainian troops have filmed a video showing Ukraine's flag being hosted over the outskirts of Lyman in the east of the country. The fast military advance sparked panic with Russian troops quickly abandoning their posts and fleeing the city. Russia's troops had been surrounded in the eastern stronghold which is a major logistics and transport hub for Vladimir Putin's forces.
By the afternoon of the advance, Russia confirmed that its troops had withdrawn from Lyman to avoid being trapped by Ukraine's army.
The Russian defence ministry said: "In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines."
The video shows two Ukrainian soldiers on top of an armoured car attaching the blue and yellow flag to a sign at the entrance to Lyman.
"October 1, we are unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land.
"Lyman will be Ukraine," one of the soldiers said
The city's capture would be Ukraine's biggest battlefield gain since a lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
The capture of the strategic eastern city would mark a humiliating defeat for President Vladimir Putin, just a day after he declared that the region where it lies and three others in Ukraine were now part of Russia.
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The Ukrainian military spokersperson said the capture of Lyman would allow Kyiv to advance into the Luhansk region, whose full capture Moscow announced at the beginning of July after weeks of slow, grinding advances.
"Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. It is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important," he said.
The operation around Lyman is still underway and Russian troops are mounting unsuccessful attempts to break out of the encirclement, Cherevatyi said.
"Some are surrendering, they have a lot of killed and wounded, but the operation is not yet over," he said.
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Ukraine's exiled governor of Luhansk said Russian forces had sought safe passage out of the encirclement, but Ukraine rejected the request.
The Ukrainian General Staff told Reuters it had no such information.
Putin proclaimed the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be Russian land in Friday's ceremony - a swathe of territory equal to about 18 percent of Ukraine's total surface land area.
Ukraine and its Western allies branded Russia's move as illegal. Kyiv vowed to continue liberating its land of Russian forces and said it would not hold peace talks with Moscow while Putin remained as president.