Ukraine said on Saturday that it had “encircled” several thousand Russian soldiers in Lyman, a strategic eastern town in the Donetsk region, annexed by Moscow on Friday despite condemnations from kyiv and the West.
“The Russian forces are surrounded in Lyman” after having taken over five villages in the surroundings, declared on television a spokesman for the Ukrainian army in the East, Serguiï Tcherevatiï, quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine agency.
According to him, “about 5,000 Russians” had been entrenched in and around Lyman in recent days.
For Serguiï Gaïdaï, the governor of the neighboring region of Lugansk, the Russian soldiers present “in the cauldron” of Lyman “have three options: to flee, to die all together or to surrender”.
Friday evening, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, had welcomed the “significant results” of the counter-offensive of his troops in the east, pushing the Russians to withdraw from many conquered territories.
On Friday, a senior pro-Russian separatist official, Denis Pushilin, acknowledged that the Russians present in Lyman were fighting there “at the end of their tether”, facing a “difficult” situation.
He also said that the Russian forces there were “partially surrounded” by Ukrainian soldiers.
The capture of Lyman would be a key victory for kyiv, with the conquest of this important railway junction in the Donetsk region, annexed on Friday by Russia.
International Court of Justice, NATO
Following the annexation of four Ukrainian regions by Moscow on Friday, Ukraine announced that it would seize the International Court of Justice (ICJ), “urging the Court to take up the case as soon as possible”.
Volodymyr Zelensky also announced that he would “sign Ukraine’s candidacy for accelerated NATO membership”, a decision supported by the United States and Canada.
“We strongly support the entry into NATO of countries which wish to join and which can contribute their capabilities”, declared the American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, while recalling “the process to be followed” for the States candidates.
Friday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin, for his part, concluded a day of ceremonies for the annexation of Ukrainian territories.
“Victory will be ours,” he said, microphone in hand, in front of several thousand people gathered for a festive concert on Red Square in Moscow.
Shortly before in the Kremlin, he had signed the annexation documents, alongside the leaders of the separatist regions of Ukraine of Donetsk and Lugansk (east), and those occupied by Russian troops in Zaporijjia and Kherson (south).
In his speech, Mr. Putin pointed the finger at the West, which he accused of wanting to preserve a “neo-colonial system”, assuring for his part that he “did not aspire” to restore the USSR despite its invasion. from Ukraine.
Not “intimidated”
Leaders of EU countries issued a statement on Friday “rejecting” and “condemning” the “illegal annexation” of Ukrainian regions.
NATO denounced ‘illegitimate’ annexation, while in New York the UN Security Council considered a resolution condemning ‘pseudo-annexations’ in Ukraine, which was immediately blocked by a Russian veto .
US President Joe Biden vowed to “support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory” and affirmed that the United States and its allies would not be “intimidated” by President Putin.
These annexations come after seven months of Russian invasion in Ukraine and so-called “referendums” organized urgently in the occupied regions in the face of the successful counter-offensive by kyiv since the beginning of September.
The recent military successes on the Ukrainian side have thus prompted Vladimir Putin to decree a “partial” mobilization of hundreds of thousands of civilian reservists, in an attempt to stem the dynamics of kyiv.
Russia also arrested Igor Murachov, the director general of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, located under Russian control in southern Ukraine, on Friday, the Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom said on Saturday.
A “Russian patrol” extracted him from his car and “drove, blindfolded, to an unknown destination”, indicated Petro Kotine, boss of Energoatom, on a social network.
The fate of Mr. Murachov was not known early Saturday afternoon.