A Ukrainian soldier removes a flag of the Russian proxy “Donetsk Republic” from a monument in Lyman in eastern Ukraine, October 1, 2022

Sunday’s Coverage: Ukrainian Forces Liberate Key City of Lyman in East

Source: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1708 GMT:

The head of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine has been released, three days after he was abducted by the invaders.

Ihor Murashov was seized on Friday. Ukraine’s nuclear energy agency suggested that the Russians were trying to force him to accept the transfer of the plant, with 7,000 Ukrainian staff, to Russia’s Rosatom.

International Atomic Energy Agency head Rafael Grossi announced:

UPDATE 1530 GMT:

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has thanked Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly for Ottawa’s support for the Ukrainian application to join NATO.

UPDATE 0735 GMT:

Having liberated Lyman, Ukraine’s forces are now closing on the city of Kreminna in the Luhansk region.

Serhiy Cherevaty, spokesman for the military’s Eastern Group, said forces are striking Russian military units in the city:

For [the Russians], it is now very important to keep Kreminna. After overcoming Kreminna, the Armed Forces of Ukraine will go to Svatovo, Rubizhne, and further on they will be able to liberate the Luhansk region.

UPDATE 0717 GMT:

The latest Russian attacks across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine have killed one person and injured eight.

UPDATE 0707 GMT:

About half of the men called up in the Khabarovsk region in Russia’s far east have been sent home because of wrongful mobilization, says Governor Mikhail Degtyaryov.

“Out of several thousand of our compatriots who had received summons and arrived at military enlistment offices in the past 10 days, around half have returned home for failing to meet the selection criteria,” the governor said.

Degtyaryov added that he has dismissed the local chief enlistment officer.

He did not say how many residents had been mobilized.

UPDATE 0646 GMT:

A Russian strike has destroyed a rehabilitation center, teaching children with special needs, in Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine.

Governor Oleksandr Starukh said “about ten S-300 missiles were launched” on the area. One person has been hospitalized.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: A day after the strategic victory at Lyman in eastern Ukraine, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has highlighted that there are even more successes as Ukrainian counter-offensives regain territory in both the east and the south.

On Saturday, troops raised the Ukrainian flag over Lyman, a rail hub in Donetsk Province. The liberation opens the way for the counter-offensive not only to retake areas seized by Russia during the seven-month invasion, but also put pressure on the proxy “republics” under Moscow’s control since 2014.

The liberation came a day after Vladimir Putin signed a decree declaring the “annexations” of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in the south.

In his nightly address to the nation on Sunday, Zelenskiy said:

The story of the liberation of Lyman in Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media. But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman.

This, you know, is the trend….Recently, someone somewhere held pseudo-referendums, and when the Ukrainian flag is returned, no one remembers the Russian farce with some pieces of paper and some annexations.

Ukrainian reserve colonel Viktor Kevlyuk said::

Thanks to the successful operation in Lyman we are moving towards the second north-south route…and that means a second supply line will be disrupted.

And in that case, the Russian group in Luhansk and Donetsk could only be supplied strictly through (Russia’s) Rostov region.

The military confirmed the liberation of Torske, a village about 15km (9 miles) east of Lyman.

Zelenskiy said the advance in the Kherson region in the south included the liberation of the settlements of Arkhanhelske and Myrolyubivka. Forces also secured positions in the areas Zolota Balka and Khreshchenivka. Russian sources said the counter-offensive had reclaimed Shevchekivka and Lyubymivka, pushing Russian forces to new defensive positions around Mykailivka.

Discontent in Russia

Inside Russia, State media and military analysts are bemoaning the loss of Lyman and criticizing Putin’s “partial mobilization” announced on September 20 alongside the forthcoming annexation.

Commentators are criticizing failures with supply and reinforcements and with a lack of transparency from officials. Some guests on State-controlled TV programs even noted that Putin annexed the occupied Ukrainian areas before securing frontlines and borders.

Kommersant columnist Maxim Yusin even dared to challenge Putin directly over the annexations: “I do not remember such a precedent in world history.” He said those who pursue the Russian “liberation” of Zaporizhzhia are “dreamers”.