Russian proxies claim control of key town in east Ukraine
Send a link to a friend
[May 27, 2022] By
Natalia Zinets and Conor Humphries
KYIV/POPASNA, Ukraine (Reuters) -Russia's
separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine claimed full control of the
important battlefield town of Lyman on Friday, and Ukraine appeared to
concede it, as Moscow presses its biggest advance for weeks.
Lyman, site of a major railway hub, has been a front line target as
Russian forces press down from the north, one of three directions from
which they have been attacking Ukraine's industrial Donbas region. The
pro-Russian Donetsk People's Republic separatists said they were now in
full control of it.
Oleksiy Arestovych, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy,
appeared to confirm the fall of Lyman in an interview posted on social
media overnight, and said the battle there showed that Moscow was
improving its tactics.
"According to unverified data, we lost the town of Lyman," Arestovych
said in the video, adding that the attack had been well organised. "This
shows, in principle, the increased level of operational management and
tactical skills of the Russian army," he said.
The Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, told
media outlet Hromadske that Lyman was "mainly controlled by Russian
troops" but the Ukrainian military had taken up new fortified positions
in the area.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/May/27/images/ads/current/hartsburggrain_sda_PROM_2022.png)
After being driven back from the capital Kyiv in March and from the
outskirts of the second biggest city Kharkiv earlier this month, Russian
forces are staging their strongest advance in weeks in the eastern
Donbas region.
Western military analysts say success could set the stage for a
protracted conflict.
In the easternmost part of the Ukrainian-held pocket, Russian forces are
trying to encircle Ukrainian troops in the cities of Sievierodonetsk and
Lyshchansk, after breaking through Ukrainian lines further south in the
city of Popasna last week.
Popasna, reached by Reuters journalists in Russian-held territory on
Thursday, was a blasted wasteland of burnt-out highrise apartments and
shattered municipal buildings. Russian tanks and other military vehicles
tore through the rubble-strewn streets kicking up dust with their
treads, and low-flying attack helicopters thundered overhead. The
bloated body of a dead man in combat uniform lay in a courtyard.
Natalia Kovalenko had finally come up in recent days from the cellar
where she had been sheltering, to sleep amid the wreckage of her own
flat. The balcony had been blown away and windows blasted off by a
direct hit from a shell.
She stared out wistfully into the blasted courtyard, recounting how two
people had been killed there and eight wounded by a shell when they went
outside to cook. Inside her flat, her kitchen and living room were
filled with rubble and debris, but she had tidied a small bedroom to
sleep. She was tired of being trapped in the cellar with dogs and cats.
"I just have to fix the window somehow. The wind is still bad. Cold at
night," she said. "We are tired of being so scared. So tired."
Russian ground forces have now captured several villages northwest of
Popasna, Britian's Ministry of Defence said.
'WHAT PRICE'
Russia's advance in the east follows a Ukrainian counter-offensive that
pushed Russian forces back from Kharkiv this month. But Moscow has
prevented Ukrainian forces from attacking the rear of Russian supply
lines to the Donbas.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/052722PIX/news_s39.jpg)
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle
along a street past a destroyed residential building during
Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk
Region, Ukraine May 26, 2022. The writing on the vehicle reads: "Valkyrie".
REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/May/27/images/ads/current/mcentire_sda_GRADUATE_2022.png)
On Thursday, Russian forces shelled parts of Kharkiv itself for the
first time in days. Local authorities said nine people were killed.
Reuters filmed as shells burst in a neighbourhood sending clouds of
smoke into the sky. A busy pavement was filled with broken glass and
a pools of blood. A park's coffee kiosk had been destroyed and
windows were blasted out of a cafe and apartment blocks.
In the south, where Moscow has also seized a swathe of territory
since the Feb. 24 invasion, Ukrainian officials believe Russia aims
to impose permanent rule.
The Ukrainian military's southern command said Russia was shipping
in military equipment from Crimea, building a third line of defence
to prepare for a potential Ukrainian counter-attack, and planting
mines on the coast of a huge reservoir behind a dam on the Dnipro
River that separates the forces.
"All this indicates that Russia will try to keep the occupied
territories under its control," it said.
In an overnight address, Zelenskiy criticised the European Union for
dithering over a ban on Russian energy imports, saying the bloc was
funding Moscow's war effort with a billion euros a day.
"Pressure on Russia is literally a matter of saving lives. Every day
of procrastination, weakness, various disputes or proposals to
'pacify' the aggressor at the expense of the victim merely means
more Ukrainians being killed," he said.
Western countries led by the United States have provided Ukraine
with long-range weaponry, including M777 howitzers. Kyiv says it
wants longer range ground weapons, especially rocket launchers, that
can help it win an artillery battle against Russian forces in the
east.
U.S. officials say the Biden administration is now considering
supplying Kyiv with the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS),
which can have a range of hundreds of kilometers.
Washington had held back from supplying such arms partly over
concern of escalation should Ukraine hit targets deep within Russia.
U.S. and diplomatic officials told Reuters Washington has discussed
this with Kyiv.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2022/May/27/images/ads/current/rbctowing_sda_PROM_2022.png)
"We have concerns about escalation and yet still do not want to put
geographic limits or tie their hands too much with the stuff we're
giving them," said one U.S. official on condition of anonymity.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any supplies of
weapons that could reach Russian territory would be a "a serious
step towards unacceptable escalation".
Russia calls its invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation"
to defeat "Nazis" there. The West describes this as a baseless
justification for a war of aggression.
(Reporting by Natalia Zinets, Conor Humphries and Pavel Polityuk in
Kyiv, Vitaliy Hnidyi in Kharkiv and Reuters journalists in
Popasna;writing by Peter Graff; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
[© 2022 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |