Why the capture of the city of Lyman by the Ukrainian army has become a serious problem for the Russian army

In the east of the Kharkiv region (northeast), the railway network converges at one point towards Kupiyansk Vuzlovych station, then descends towards Svatov in the south, in the Lugansk region, occupied by Russia.

During the six months of Russian occupation, trains carried supplies to Moscow troops stationed further south on these tracks, making the station an important military center for Russian military operations.

But in recent times the situation has changed. The Ukrainian counter-offensive enabled Kyiv to retake a large amount of territory in the region, forcing the Russians to withdraw.

The station, although heavily damaged, is now in the hands of the Ukrainian Army.

“This site has always been an important strategic point. It is a crossroads for freight and trains”, explains “Rosomakha”, a Ukrainian soldier whose name de guerre translates as “glutton”.

Behind him the windows of the station are shattered and the hall is deserted.

During a visit to the “Rosomakha” unit at the station on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially announced the capture of Lyman, at the front, in the Donetsk region, still occupied by Moscow on Friday.

The city is “completely rid” of Russian forces, he hailed in a video, marking an important victory for Kyiv, two days after Moscow formalized the annexation of Ukrainian territories that its forces were completely controlled or controlled. Part.

“in panic”

Kupyansk Vauzlovic is located 90 km north of Lyman, on the banks of the Oskil River, not far from Kupiansk, a city that was captured by Ukrainians last week.

Faced with its failures, the Russian army had to retreat hurriedly in the direction of Svatov, halfway to the important cities of Severodonetsk and Lischansk, which were so difficult to take from the Ukrainians before the summer.

Not enough to worry “Rosomakha” and her brothers in arms, determined to continue their march to liberate the occupied territories.

“They fled in panic and had already redeployed their troops to other locations in the middle of the summer,” says the soldier, who adds that the capture of several Russian prisoners gave the Ukrainian army a good chance of Moscow’s shots. Knowledge is obtained. field.

According to him, the Russian army has already been strengthened by reservists, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called by hundreds of thousands of people to stop Kyiv’s movement in less than ten days.

The soldier wants to be reassured and recalls that “according to Ukrainian law, these regions are part of Ukraine”, he said of the territories annexed by Moscow, widely condemned by Kyiv and its Western allies.

“This is our land,” he says, standing a few meters from a large crater formed after the bombardment by the Russian army during its withdrawal.

“I come from the Lugansk region”, still largely under Russian control, he says. “Therefore I will not stop until the last Russian leaves these lands.”