Ukrainian forces have entered Stavky, a village neighboring Lyman within the Kramatorsk district of Donetsk, Serhii Cherevatyi, the army spokesperson for the jap grouping of Ukrainian forces, instructed native media on Saturday.
“The Russian group within the space of Lyman is surrounded. The settlements of Yampil, Novoselivka, Shandryholove, Drobysheve, and Stavky are liberated. Stabilization measures are ongoing there,” Cherevatyi mentioned in a televised press convention.
“[The liberation] of Lyman is vital, as a result of it’s one other step in the direction of the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbass. This is a chance to go additional to Kreminna and Severodonetsk. Subsequently, in flip, it’s psychologically essential,” he mentioned.
Cherevatyi mentioned the Ukrainian troops actions are setting the tone to “break the course of those hostilities.”
“Sure, there are numerous killed and wounded amongst them. Nevertheless, the operation is just not but full. And solely after its completion, the headquarters will conduct an evaluation and provides extra vital outcomes,” he mentioned.
Serhiy Hayday, the top of the Luhansk regional army administration, additionally spoke Saturday with additional particulars on the Lyman takeover, suggesting Russian forces had supplied to retreat, however to no avail from the Ukrainian facet.
“Occupiers requested [their command] for risk to retreat, they usually have been refused,” Hayday mentioned.
“There are a number of thousand of them. Sure, about 5,000. There is no such thing as a precise quantity but. 5 thousand continues to be a colossal grouping. There has by no means been such a big group within the encirclement earlier than. All routes for the availability of ammunition or the retreat of the group are all fully blocked,” he added.
A Ukrainian member of Parliament and deputy head of the parliament’s committee on nationwide safety, Yurii Mysiagin, referenced the transfer into Stavky on Saturday by publishing a video on social media platform Telegram displaying a Ukrainian tank shifting up the street with a transparent signal indicating the area of Stavky. CNN couldn’t independently confirm the unique supply or the date.
There was no official Russian response to the combating within the area.
