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Russia suffered a humiliating military defeat on Saturday when Ukrainian troops liberated the key eastern city of Lyman, with videos showing them raising a blue and yellow national flag and performing a victory dance.
In a severe embarrassment for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s ministry of defence admitted its soldiers had retreated. They had been “withdrawn to more advantageous lines”, the ministry said, after their encirclement by Ukrainian forces.
The debacle came hours after Putin announced on Friday that the city, which is a part of the Donetsk region, was Russia’s “for ever”. In a ceremony in the Kremlin he announced the province’s annexation, together with the territories of Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
But Putin’s high-stakes strategy appeared to be unravelling on the battlefield. Russian nationalist bloggers vented their fury at the military command in Moscow, while Chechnya’s president, Ramzan Kadyrov, published a scathing critique of its many failures.
Writing on Telegram, Kadryov called on the Kremlin to consider using a “low-yield nuclear weapon” in the wake of its Lyman setback. He asked sarcastically what cities Russia might lose next, adding: “Everything would be good if it wasn’t so bad.”
Earlier on Saturday Ukraine’s armed forces said they had entirely surrounded the city, trapping thousands of Russian soldiers inside. The governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, said the besieged troops had begged on Friday to be allowed to leave Lyman. Their commanders refused, he claimed.
With no way out, the Russians could either surrender, try to escape or die together, Haidai said. “A colossal grouping” of up to 5,000 enemy soldiers was facing defeat, he added. Ukrainian drone footage from Friday showed a column of vehicles heading west, together with civilian vehicles.
Russian military bloggers reported that Ukrainian servicemen had entered the centre of the city, and were handing out food to residents. Shelling and small arms fire had stopped.
“Whatever promises there were to send us reinforcements never materialised,” one admitted. Mobile phone footage showed Ukrainian soldiers walking calmly over a destroyed bridge near the village of Torske.
Ukrainian forces also liberated several other surrounding settlements including Yampil, south of Lyman, Novoselivka, Shandrigolovo and Drobysheve.
