After being surrounded by Ukrainian forces, Russia announced on Saturday that it had withdrawn troops from a town in eastern Ukraine it was using as a frontline hub. It was the last victory of a surprise Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Russia’s withdrawal from Lyman, announced by the Defense Ministry on its Telegram channel, complicates its internationally reviled decision to annex four regions of Ukraine and paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push deeper into lands than Moscow. now illegally claims as his own.
The fighting over Lyman comes at a pivotal moment in Putin’s war. In the face of Ukrainian gains on the battlefield – which he describes as a US-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia – Putin this week stepped up his threats of nuclear force.
The Russian Defense Ministry said it inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces fighting to retain Lyman, but the outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favorable positions. The Russian announcement came shortly after the Ukrainian Air Force said it had moved to Lyman and the Ukrainian President’s Chief of Staff posted photos of a flag Ukrainian hoisted to the outskirts of the city on his Telegram channel.
Lyman is about 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.
Earlier on Saturday, a senior Ukrainian official said Russian forces killed 20 people when they bombed a civilian evacuation convoy in the northeast of the country. The bombardment intensified as Moscow annexed the territory.
Russian officials have not commented on the incident; NBC News was unable to confirm details.
Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov said the civilian convoy was hit in Kupiansy district, calling the attack on people trying to flee the area to avoid being bombarded with “cruelty that does not can be justified”.
The attack was apparently the second in two days to hit a humanitarian convoy. Russian troops withdrew from much of the Kharkiv region after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive last month, but continued to shell the area.
In a daily intelligence briefing, Britain’s Ministry of Defense highlighted an attack on Friday in the town of Zaporizhzhia that killed 30 people and injured 88 others.
The British military said the Russians “almost certainly” hit the aid convoy there with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. Russia is increasingly using anti-aircraft missiles to carry out ground attacks, likely due to a lack of ammunition, the British said on Saturday.
“The Russian stockpile of such missiles is most likely limited and a high-value resource designed to shoot down modern aircraft and incoming missiles, rather than for use against ground targets,” the British said. “Its use in the ground-attack role was almost certainly driven by global shortages of ammunition, particularly longer-range precision missiles.”
Russian-backed officials in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukraine for the attack without providing any evidence.
The British briefing noted that the attack took place as Putin prepared to sign the annexation treaties.
“Russia is spending strategically valuable military assets in an attempt to gain a tactical advantage and in doing so kills civilians whom it now claims to be its own citizens,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s nuclear power supplier on Saturday accused Russia of “abducting” the head of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, a facility now occupied by Russian troops and located in the annexed region.
Russian forces seized the general manager of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 p.m. Friday, Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom said. This was just hours after Putin, in a sharp escalation of his war, signed treaties to absorb Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territory into Russia.
Energoatom said Russian troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him and then took him to an undisclosed location.
“Its possession by (Russia) jeopardizes the security of Ukraine and of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,” said Energoatom Chairman Petro Kotin.
Kotin demanded that Russia immediately release Murashov.
Russia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has staff at the plant, said it sought clarification from Russian authorities and was told Murashov had been temporarily detained to answer questions.
The IAEA did not say whether he had been released or what condition he was in.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has repeatedly been caught in the crossfire of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian technicians continued to operate it after Russian troops seized the power plant. The plant’s last reactor was shut down in September amid ongoing shelling near the facility.