Russian forces are “partially surrounded” in the town of Lyman, an important railway hub in eastern Ukraine, a senior separatist official acknowledged on Friday, the day of Moscow’s planned annexation of four Ukrainian regions.
“Right now, Lyman is partially surrounded. The Svatové road is under our control, but periodically under fire,” Denis Pushilin, head of the separatist stronghold of Donetsk, said on Telegram.
He acknowledged that the villages of Yampil and Drobychevé, close to Lyman, “are not under the total control” of Moscow, describing the situation as “worrying”.
“Our guys are fighting, we are replenishing reserves, we have to hold on, but the enemy has also thrown serious forces” into the battle, Pushilin continued.
“It is very unpleasant news, but we must look at the situation with sobriety and draw conclusions from our mistakes,” he added.
A Ukrainian unit engaged in this battle, the 66th mechanized brigade, for its part announced on Facebook that it had captured the village of Chtchourové, five kilometers southwest of Lyman.
These announcements come as Russia prepares on Friday to formalize the annexation of four Ukrainian regions after alleged referendums denounced by the West and organized in an emergency in the face of the territorial gains of kyiv troops.
At least 25 killed in strike in Zaporizhia region
At least 25 people died Friday in a strike that hit civilian cars in the Ukrainian-held part of the Zaporizhia region, partially occupied by Russian forces.
Russians and Ukrainians accused each other of this bombardment not far from the city of Zaporijjia, about forty kilometers north of the Russian-Ukrainian line of contact.
Civilians gathered there to get permission to convoy to the occupied area.
At the site of the explosion, about fifteen cars with blown windows were visible. The projectile hit the parking lot of a transit center for displaced people, about ten meters from the vehicles, AFP journalists noted.
At least three female corpses were visible on the ground.
“The enemy launched a rocket attack against a humanitarian convoy of civilians, people were queuing to go to the temporarily occupied area, meet relatives, receive help,” Telegram said. Ukrainian regional governor Oleksandr Staroukh.
“Burn in hell you damn Russians,” he said.
According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, at least 25 people were killed and 50 others injured.
A representative of the Russian occupation accused the Ukrainian forces of having fired on these vehicles to prevent these civilians from reaching the occupied zone.
Ukraine “hit our people, who were standing in line,” accused regional occupation official Vladimir Rogov on Telegram.
In addition, an official of the Russian occupation administration in the neighboring region of Kherson was killed overnight from Thursday to Friday in a Ukrainian strike, local authorities said.
Alexei Katerinitchev, first deputy to the head of the administration of the Kherson region, in charge of security, was killed “in a precise strike” carried out by Ukrainian forces using two missiles launched by a HIMARS system on his home, said a cadre of the Russian occupation, Kirill Stremoussov, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
This official comes from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations and had worked with the security services, the FSB, according to the said ministry.
Partially under Russian control, Kherson and Zaporijjia, in southern Ukraine, are two of the four regions that Vladimir Putin’s Russia will annex on Friday.