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Quoting the defence ministry in moscow said russian troops have now left the strategic town of lyman, in eastern ukraine. earlier, the ukrainian military said its troops were inside the town, which isjust inside the russian occupied donetsk region. the minister spokesman, quoted by russian news agencies, said the withdrawal was carried out because of a threat of encirclement. earlier, i spoke to alina frolova, ukraine s former deputy defence minister and current deputy head of board of the centre for defence strategies, who s in kyiv now, and i asked her about developements in east ukraine. russia declared its so called referendums yesterday and declared these territory to be russian territory, and this is the first released town out of those which were declared. it also has important operational meaning because it is like a connection and because it is
Where the flag raising is taking place. alina frolova is a former deputy defence minister of ukraine and is now the deputy chairman of the centre for defence strategy think tank. she told me more about the significance of this development. you know, that yesterday russia declared its so called referendums and then actually declared this territory to be russian territory. and this is actually the third released town out of those which were declared. however, it also has a very important operational meaning because it is like a connection hub and because it is also the beginning of the quite big events in the donetsk region. so, yes, it is very critical to stress that lyman is in the donetsk area, one of those regions that russia is now claiming as part of it,
But of course we are seeing russian troops leave so i wonder what that means for those other territories like donetsk and also further down in the south of luhansk as well, nearby, but also zaporizhzhia? any advance means a lot because we then disrupt the routes which they can connect, we disrupt the logistics, we move out the artillery from these areas. but the principle of counter offensive is important for ukrainians because this is the continuation of the counteroffensive and kharkiv region and it means that we didn t stop after this threat of nuclear war, that we didn t stop after all the claims which russia made, and this is principally very important for ukrainians. alina, are you concerned, we saw the horrific images from zaporizhzhia, over 30 people were killed in russian shelling there, are you concerned about these advances by the ukrainian military
We are joined from the ukrainian capital kyiv by alina frolova, ukraine s former deputy defence minister and current deputy head of board of the centre for defense strategies, a think tank. welcome to you. thanks very much for being with us. what do you understand is happening in lyman in eastern ukraine at the moment? ishieiiii. eastern ukraine at the moment? well, we still don t eastern ukraine at the moment? well, we still don t have eastern ukraine at the moment? well, we still don t have some eastern ukraine at the moment? vii we still don t have some kind of we still don t have some kind of official report from ukrainian generals, but there are multiple reports from the troops on the ground, and there is a report, an official report, of russian, that they left lyman, but this was obviously a one off, successful operation of ukrainian troops, and we expect confirmation of how many losses the russians have. they are now counting around 600 being dead, and we still expect that