Ukraine presses counteroffensive after Russian setback

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown with suicide drones on Sunday, and Ukraine pushed forward with its counteroffensive after taking again management of a strategic japanese metropolis.

Russia’s lack of Lyman, which it had been utilizing as a transport and logistics hub, is a brand new blow to the Kremlin because it seeks to escalate the struggle by illegally annexing 4 areas of Ukraine.

“The Ukrainian flag is already in Lyman,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned in his nightly handle. “Over the previous week, there have been extra Ukrainian flags within the Donbas. In per week there will likely be much more.”

In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown Krivyi Rih got here below Russian assault by a suicide drone that struck a faculty early Sunday and destroyed two tales of it, mentioned Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk area.

A hearth sparked by the drone assault has been put out, he mentioned.

Russia in current weeks has begun utilizing Iranian-made suicide drones to assault targets in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air pressure mentioned it shot down 5 Iranian-made drones in a single day, whereas two others made it by air defenses.

In the meantime, Russian assaults additionally focused town of Zaporizhzhia, authorities mentioned Sunday.

Ukraine’s army mentioned Sunday it carried out a strike on a Russian ammunition depot within the nation’s south, in Chernihiv, and hitting different Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.

The reviews of army exercise couldn’t be instantly verified.

After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out Saturday from Lyman within the east in what the British army described as a “vital political setback” for Moscow. Taking town paves the way in which for Ukrainian troops to doubtlessly push farther into territory Russia has occupied.

Lyman had been an vital hyperlink within the Russian entrance line for floor communications and logistics. Lyman is within the Donetsk area close to the border with Luhansk, two areas that Russia annexed Friday after forcing the inhabitants to vote in referendums at gunpoint.

Russia’s Protection Ministry claimed to have inflicted injury on Ukrainian forces in battling to carry Lyman, however mentioned outnumbered Russian troops had been withdrawn to extra favorable positions.

In a day by day intelligence briefing, the British Protection Ministry referred to as Lyman essential as a result of it has “a key street crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been making an attempt to consolidate its defenses.”

The British mentioned they believed that town had been held by “undermanned components” previous to the Russian withdrawal.

Moscow’s withdrawal from Lyman prompted speedy criticism from some Russian officers.

“Additional losses of territory in illegally occupied territories will virtually definitely result in an intensification of this public criticism and improve the stress on senior commanders,” the British army briefing mentioned.

Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory in a counteroffensive that began in September and has humiliated and angered Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin frames the Ukrainian beneficial properties as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia and this week heightened threats of nuclear pressure in a few of his hardest, most anti-Western rhetoric up to now.

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Observe AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine