A day after Russia declared annexation of the four regions of Ukraine, Ukrainian forces recaptured Liman, the gateway to eastern Donetsk.
According to foreign media such as Archyde.com, Serhi Cherevati, spokesman for the Eastern Army of Ukraine, said on the 1st (local time) that it had successfully entered Lehman. This morning, the news of the recapture came just hours after it was announced that the Russian forces in Lehman had been surrounded. The Office of the President of Ukraine also released a video on social networking service (SNS) announcing the news of Ukrainian troops retaking in front of the Lehman City Hall building. The video shows the Ukrainian military declaring, “Dear citizens, today the Ukrainian army has succeeded in liberating Lehman in the Donetsk region.” Some soldiers climbed up the city hall building, tossed the Russian national anthem from the roof, and hoisted the Ukrainian flag in its place.
Russia’s defense ministry later said in a telegram that its troops had withdrawn from Lehmann, saying they were “in danger of being surrounded”.
Lehman is a city that Russia has used as a logistics and transportation hub in the northern region of Donetsk. It is also a transportation hub on the way to Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, the core cities of northern Luhansk Oblast. The Ukrainian army’s recapture of Lehman is one of the biggest achievements since the recapture of Kharkiv, “Ukraine’s second city,” last month, Archyde.com reported.