On Saturday morning, the news came that Ukrainian forces had surrounded the Russian forces, which consist of between 5,000-5,500 soldiers. A few hours later, the news came that Ukrainian soldiers were about to enter the city itself. It is Ukrainian military sources who provide the updates to international news agencies. The information has not been independently verified. – Ukrainian forces capture Liman, Donetsk region, declared the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense on Twitter. A video published by President Zelenskyi’s chief of staff on Saturday morning shows Ukrainian soldiers climbing onto a military vehicle with a Ukrainian flag. – It is 1 October. We unfurl our flag and plant it on our soil. Liman will be Ukrainian, one of the soldiers is heard saying. Next to the soldiers is a town sign. The video must have been recorded at one of the northern entrance roads to the city. Liman is located in the north of Donetsk county, which is one of four areas that Russia yesterday forcibly incorporated into the Russian Federation. The city is an important hub as a railway town. Around 5,500 Russian soldiers are now said to be surrounded in the city. Reportedly captured several villages Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address on Friday night that important victories had been achieved in battles against Russian forces in and around the city, without giving further details. The Ukrainian newspaper Ukens speil quotes Sergej Cherevatyj, spokesman for the eastern forces, as saying that Ukrainian forces have now liberated five villages in the area: Jampil, Novoselivka, Shandrigolovo, Drobysheve, Stavky. Cherevatyj states that the number of combat-ready Russian soldiers may be reduced. – Someone has tried to break through our barriers. Some surrender. They have many dead and injured. The operation is still not over, says the spokesman. There were fierce battles around the railway junction Liman in our spring. Now Ukrainian forces are in the process of recapturing the city that the Russians took control of in June. Photo: JORGE SILVA / Reuters Blocking supply routes It was early Friday that the first report came that a large Russian force was surrounded outside the city. – The situation is still difficult, our people are holding out with their last strength, Denis Pushilin told the state-run Russian news agency Ria Novosti. Putin is the leader of the Russian-backed breakaway region of the Donetsk region. He confirmed that Ukrainian government forces were recapturing control of villages in the area, which Russian forces took weeks to gain control of this spring. Several pro-Russian military bloggers have also mentioned the fighting around the city. All supply routes that the Russians use for ammunition supply and reinforcements were blocked on Friday afternoon, according to Ukrainian military sources. The Ukrainian governor of the neighboring county of Luhansk, Serhiy Hajdaj, tells the Reuters news agency that Russian soldiers must have asked the Ukrainian authorities for a safe way out of Liman, but were refused. No more putting in Lieutenant Colonel and professor at the Norwegian Defense Academy Tormod Heier thinks the Russian soldiers in and around Liman may be quite alone. – There could not have been large Russian forces behind, because then they would have already come to the rescue of the leading forces. What we are seeing may mean that the Russian logistics and support apparatus may be on the rim. The Russian forces are generally exhausted, they lack well-rested crews, weapons and spare parts, says Heier to news. Heier also does not think the Russians have the capacity to “fill the hole” in the strategic Liman area in the short term. – The fundamental problems the Russians are struggling with cannot be solved in the short term. We are talking about a lack of fighting morale, a lack of functioning coordination and strong leadership as well as the supply of more soldiers. – The existing forces are too few, they have missed too much and are exhausted, explains the lieutenant colonel. On June 6 this year, the bridge leading to Liman was destroyed. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS / AFP Tearing up Russian defense positions Should Ukraine succeed in recapturing Liman, it could pave the way for the country’s forces to advance further into Donetsk and the neighboring county of Luhansk. – Liman is important because the next step is to liberate Ukrainian Donbas (the Ukrainian Donbas region consists of the counties of Donetsk and Luhansk editor’s note) and an opportunity to establish a bridgehead further to Kreminna and Sievjerodonetsk, according to Ukrainian military spokesman Sergej Cherevatyj . The Norwegian lieutenant colonel believes that the Ukrainians will proceed in a controlled manner. – The Ukrainian forces will probably be careful not to gape over too much. This is to ensure that there is no power vacuum behind the forces at the front. It is important to prevent looting and unrest, says Tormod Heier. The Ukrainian government forces shocked Russia with their lightning offensive in the Kharkiv region at the beginning of September. In a few days they recaptured large areas at the same time as the Russian front line collapsed. Heier says it is possible that the Ukrainian forces will try something of the same in Liman. – It may well be that they will try to use the momentum that has now been created to tear up Russian defense positions. At the same time, the Ukrainians are vulnerable to losses, therefore the leading forces will rely on supplies and the artillery that comes in the rear, says Heier. Overshadowed ceremony News of the fighting around Liman came at the same time as Russian authorities were preparing the ceremony in Moscow, where Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Kherson and Zaporizhzhya were forcibly incorporated into the Russian Federation and declared Russian. Liman is located south of the areas of Kharkiv that Ukrainian forces recaptured earlier in September. The leader of the self-proclaimed and Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic said on Friday that Ukrainian forces were “trying to overshadow the historic incorporation into Russia”. – Our people are fighting, we are calling out reserves and we have to persevere, despite the fact that the enemy has deployed significant forces against us, said Denis Pusjilin. President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, for his part, has made it clear that the goal is to take back all Russian-occupied areas. – How much does progress on the ground cost Ukraine? – The Ukrainian offensive has cost many lives on its own side. However, Ukraine has a large-scale mobilization and is encouraged by the progress and the high fighting morale, and with Western defense aid they will see it as acceptable costs. – The Ukrainian forces wage war in a more modern way than the Russians, which means that they will try to inflict significant damage on the Russians without risking Russian counterattacks, says Heier. Follow the development in news’s News Center:
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Russian forces must have withdrawn from Liman – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
