Moscow orders the withdrawal of its troops from the key city of Liman, surrounded by Ukrainian forces

A Ukrainian soldier looks at a wrecked Russian multiple rocket launcher near Sosnove in Donetsk province on Friday.ANATOLII STEPANOV (AFP)

Ukraine has assured this Saturday that it has managed to close the fence around the city of Liman, in the north of the eastern region of Donetsk.

Completing that circle with their Army does not mean that, right now, they have it under their control, although that is the objective they seek.

There are doubts about how many Russian soldiers would have managed to escape from that siege and how many have remained surrounded in that town where until a few days ago there were more than 5,000 soldiers from the invading troops, according to kyiv.

The Russian Ministry of Defense has reported a withdrawal of its troops from this place before they were blocked by the enemy.

This important bastion is strategic for the Kremlin, which uses it as a logistics and transport center, as it houses a crucial railway junction for the supply of Russian troops.

Retaking Liman is a key step in kyiv's attempts to recover 15% of its territory from the four Ukrainian provinces - Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia - whose illegal annexation to the Russian Federation was proclaimed on Friday in Moscow by Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a ceremony defined as a farce by Ukraine and the West.

On Friday, the pro-Russian leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Denis Pushilin, had admitted the "difficult" situation of the Russian troops in Liman and that these forces were "partially" surrounded.

In a video posted by Andrii Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, two smiling Ukrainian soldiers tape the blue and yellow national flag to the town's welcome sign bearing their name, Liman.

The images have spread like wildfire throughout the morning of Saturday.

"October 1st.

We are unfurling our national flag and establishing it on our land.

Liman will be Ukraine,” says one of the soldiers, standing on the hood of a military vehicle.

🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/gJX6GbKtca

— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) October 1, 2022

Serhii Cherevatii, a spokesman for the military forces in eastern Ukraine, confirmed on television that the Russian army in the Liman area "is surrounded."

According to Cherevatii, Russia had between 5,000 and 5,500 soldiers in that city, but the number of encircled troops could be lower due to the casualties suffered in the fighting.

The seizure of this important strategic center would constitute Ukraine's biggest battlefield victory since the lightning counter-offensive that allowed it to recapture more than 8,500 square kilometers of the Kharkiv region, according to Ukrainian sources, in September.

The military spokesman assured that the capture of Liman would allow kyiv to advance in the Lugansk region, whose total capture Moscow announced in early July, after weeks of slow progress.

“Liman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas.

It is an opportunity to go further towards Kreminna and Severodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important," said Cherevatii, who specified that the operation is still underway and that Russian troops continue to try to break the siege of Liman without success.

"Some are surrendering, they have many dead and wounded, but the operation is not over yet," he declared.

The Ukrainian governor of Lugansk stated, for his part, that the Russian troops have asked for a safe exit, but that Ukraine has rejected this request.

Although the Kremlin has not ruled on the siege of Liman, Rodion Miroshnik, ambassador to Moscow of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic, has.

According to his version, units of the Russian Army's Southern Military District have attacked Ukrainian positions "in order to unblock the encirclement of Liman", he assured this Saturday.

Miroshnik maintains that the Ukrainian troops are regrouping around the towns of Severska and Drobíshevo.

"Liman is under full control of the allied forces," he stressed, referring to Russian troops and pro-Russian separatists.

According to this pro-Russian leader, Moscow forces continue to patrol the city and also control the road that leads from Liman to Kreminna, already in the Lugansk region.

The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the vast historical region of Donbas, the Kremlin's number one target, according to Putin and his aides' own statements, since the invasion began on February 24.

On Friday, the Russian president proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as the southern Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia as part of Russia.

Ukraine, the European Union, the United States and the rest of the Western allies have branded the annexation illegal and have stated that they will never recognize it.

kyiv also responded by promising to continue liberating its territory from Russian forces and ruling out any possibility of peace talks with Moscow as long as Putin remains president.

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