Ukrainian soldiers near Lyman, Ukraine, on September 22. (Tyler Hicks/The New York Times/Redux)
Ukrainian forces have entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman in Donetsk’s Kramatorsk district, Serhii Cherevatyi, the military spokesman for the eastern grouping of Ukrainian forces, told local media on Saturday.
“The Russian group in the Lyman area is surrounded. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve and Stavky are liberated. Stabilization measures are underway there,” Cherevatyi told a televised news conference.
“[The liberation] de Lyman is important, because it is another step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbass. This is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Severodonetsk. So, in turn, psychologically it is very important,” he said.
Cherevatyi said the actions of Ukrainian troops are setting the tone for “breaking the course of these hostilities.”
“Yes, there are many dead and wounded among them. However, the operation is not over yet. And only after its completion, the headquarters will make an analysis and give more significant results”, he said.
Serhiy Hayday, the head of the Luhansk regional military administration, also spoke in more detail about Lyman’s takeover on Saturday, suggesting that Russian forces had offered to withdraw, but without success, from the Ukrainian side.
” asked the occupants [their command] for the possibility of withdrawing, and they’ve been turned down,” Hayday said.
“There are several thousand of them. Yes, about 5,000. There is no exact number yet. Five thousand is still a colossal grouping. Never before has there been such a large group in the encirclement. All avenues for the supply of ammunition or the withdrawal of the group are completely blocked”, he added.
A member of the Ukrainian Parliament and deputy head of the Parliament’s national security committee, Yurii Mysiagin, referred to the move to Stavky on Saturday by posting a video on social media platform Telegram showing a Ukrainian tank driving down the road with a sign clearly indicates the region. from Stavky. CNN was unable to independently verify the original source or date.
There has been no official Russian response to the fighting in the region.