hello and welcome if you re watching in the uk or around the world. the russian ministry of defence says its troops have left the strategic town of lemann, in eastern ukraine. a ministry spokesman was quoted by russian news agencies as saying the withdrawal was carried out because of a threat of encirclement. earlier, the ukrainian military said its troops were inside the town. lyman was a key strategic target used by russia as a major logistics hub and sits in the donetsk region which the government in moscow has just declared to be a part of russia. video footage shared online shows ukrainian soldiers waving their national flag on the outskirts of lyman. we cannot however verify exactly 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 call
That is something that we have to deal with in our everyday life. What you are asking about. The Ukrainian Government had to make a response to the actions of the Russian Federation when the so called puppet, basically, authorities that are installed on the occupied territories by the Russian Federation on us, they expropriated 26 ukrainian enterprises that are on the territory. Coalmines and steel . Yes, operating within ukrainian law but they expropriated that so after that we couldnt continue working with them. Moreover, the Russian Federation decided to recognise the so called ids produced on the local ground in the territory not controlled by the ukraine. And they introduced the ruble as the only currency. So the Ukrainian Government unfortunately had to react with the measure that we have taken. The blockade. But civilians might be suffering as a result. Again the United Nations Commissioner For Human Rights in a report looking at the situation in the ukraine to may this year has
That is something that we have to deal with in our everyday life. What you are asking about. The Ukrainian Government had to make a response to the actions of the Russian Federation when the so called puppet, basically, authorities that are installed on the occupied territories by the Russian Federation on us, they expropriated 26 ukrainian enterprises that are on the territory. Coalmines and steel . Yes, operating within ukrainian law but they expropriated that so after that we couldnt continue working with them. Moreover, the Russian Federation decided to recognise the so called ids produced on the local ground in the territory not controlled by the ukraine. And they introduced the ruble as the only currency. So the Ukrainian Government unfortunately had to react with the measure that we have taken. The blockade. But civilians might be suffering as a result. Again the United Nations Commissioner For Human Rights in a report looking at the situation in the ukraine to may this year has
and arguably what russia may do, in terms of retaliation, against civilians in ukraine? well, actually, yesterday was zaporizhzhia, today it is kupiansk who has the same situation. the civilians, 20 who are dead, 13 children, no one stay alive so, yes, obviously russia are starting to hit specifically the civilians. they know where they are located because this is actually established routes for driving people between occupied and non occupied territories, and they are hitting specifically there, like paying back for the counteroffensive we did. gas has begun flowing down a new pipeline from norway to poland that will give central and eastern europe another alternative option to russian energy. poland had been dependent on russia
in some cases, they will eliminate the population as much as they can, such as in mariupol. but they will then go ahead and make an accommodation, but that accommodation will be temporary, at least in their view, and they will wait for another opportunity to do what they ve done, you know, since february 24th. it s interesting that you say that because some analysts believe perhaps that russia has come to the conclusion and has realized that it can t take kyiv in any significant way, certainly can t hold it, and therefore potentially that a negotiation position would end up being, well, we can control mariupol, which we ve gutted and completely leveled anyway, some parts of eastern ukraine. we have that land bridge to crimea, and essentially cut the country in half where you have the occupied and non-occupied zones. you think their objective is still the entirety of the country, including kyiv? i think so.