In yet another defeat by the Ukrainian army, Russia has given up the strategically important city of Lyman in the Donetsk region. The armed forces had been withdrawn because of the risk of encirclement, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in Moscow on Saturday. Ukrainian authorities had previously spoken of around 5,000 surrounded Russian soldiers. According to this, some soldiers tried to escape from the encirclement.
Russia took Lyman, where 20,000 people lived before the war broke out, in May. Since then, Russia has expanded it into a military logistics and transport center. S
Why so important?
Should Lyman fall back to Ukraine, the way would be open deep into the remaining parts of Donetsk, which together with Luhansk forms the Donbass. Parts of the areas have been controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.
Chief of Zaporizhia nuclear power plant abducted
The head of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops, Ihor Murashov, has been kidnapped by Moscow troops, according to Ukrainian sources. This was announced by the President of the operating company Enerhoatom, Petro Kotin, on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army announced that it had encircled thousands of Russian soldiers in the strategic city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
According to Kotin, the general director of the largest European nuclear power plant was stopped on the street the day before by a Russian patrol at the Enerhodar nuclear power plant site, dragged out of the car and taken blindfolded to an unknown location. There was initially no explanation from the Russian side.
Occupied since March
Russia has occupied the nuclear power plant since early March. “There is no knowledge of his fate,” Kotin said on the Telegram news channel. He accused Russia of nuclear terrorism against the management and employees of the power plant. Murashov, who bears the main responsibility for the safe functioning and nuclear safety of the plant, must be released immediately. Kotin also called on the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, to campaign for Murashov’s release. The IAEA announced on Saturday morning that they had contacted the Russian authorities and requested clarification.
Moscow uses anti-missiles in a ground offensive
The British secret service announced that Moscow is now using anti-missiles in its ground offensive in Ukraine that are actually intended for shooting down aircraft or other missiles. A long-range anti-aircraft missile was allegedly used in an attack on a convoy south-east of the city of Zaporizhia on Friday, the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily briefing on Saturday. According to local authorities, 25 civilians were killed.
The British secret services see the use of such a missile as a sign of Russian ammunition shortages, since these weapons are considered strategically valuable and only available in limited numbers. Moscow is now allegedly also using such weapons in order to gain tactical advantages and accepts that civilians would be killed who, following the illegal annexation of several Ukrainian territories, would have to be regarded as Russia’s own citizens.
The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant had been repeatedly shelled. Both the Russian occupying forces and the Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly warned of a possible nuclear incident with massive repercussions for the whole of Europe. The IAEA is committed to rapid further talks about a ceasefire zone around the nuclear power plant. According to its management, the state-owned Russian nuclear company Rosatom, which controls the power plant together with Russian units, is ready to talk about the technical aspects of a protection zone.
Meanwhile, the World Bank announced further aid worth 530 million dollars (543.7 million euros) for Ukraine. This increases the total amount of aid provided to $ 13 billion, it said. Eleven billion dollars have already been called up.
Governor: At least 20 bodies found in the northeast
According to a regional governor, at least 20 people have been found dead in civilian vehicles in north-eastern Ukraine. “The occupiers attacked civilians who tried to flee the shelling,” Kharkiv region governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on Telegram on Saturday. “There is no justification for this cruelty.” According to them, the attack happened near the city of Kupyansk. According to Synebugov, police officers and experts for investigations are on site.
On Friday, reporters from the AFP news agency saw at least 11 dead civilians in vehicles on a road in the region after Russian troops withdrew from Kupyansk. It had previously become known that at least 30 people had been killed in an attack on a convoy of civilian vehicles in the southern Ukrainian region of Zaporizhia. Ukrainian authorities blame Russian troops for the attack.
According to the presidential office in Kyiv, 16 Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles hit the vehicles. For their part, pro-Russian authorities accused Ukraine of being responsible for the “terrorist attack”. Both sides released photos of destroyed cars and bodies lying next to them, which are said to show the aftermath of the attack.