Ukraine claims more than 60,000 Russian soldiers have been killed and 2,300 tanks destroyed as they fight back Russian invasion – and Zelensky declares recaptured Lyman is ‘fully cleared’ of Putin’s forces
- Ukrainian authorities have made the claims in their updated estimates of casuality numbers this morning
- Russia was forced to withdraw its troops from the strategically important eastern city of Lyman on Saturday
- Ukrainian forces have retaken swathes of territory in a counteroffensive that started in September
- It comes after Putin was pictured grinning and laughing on Friday after he annexed four Ukrainian regions
More than 60,000 Russian troops have been killed in the war so far, while over 2,300 tanks have been destroyed, Ukrainian authorities have claimed in their updated estimates of casuality numbers this morning, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that the recaptured city of Lyman is ‘fully cleared’ of Putin’s forces.
Of the 60,110 Russian soldiers that have died fighting, according to the Ukrainian armed forces, 500 were lost in the last 24 hours, mostly in the areas of Kramatorsk and Bakhmut. It added that 2,377 tanks have been destroyed overall.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelenskyy also declared today that the key town of Lyman in Ukraine’s east, located in one of the four Ukrainian regions that Russia annexed, was ‘completely cleared’ of Moscow’s troops.
‘As of 12:30pm (9.30am in the UK) Lyman is completely cleared. Thank you to our military!’ Zelensky said in a video posted on social media.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine progresses, it has recently faced considerable setbacks as Ukrainian forces have retaken swathes of territory in a counter-offensive that started in September and has humiliated and angered Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin came under stinging criticism from his own side following Russia’s forced withdrawal of troops from the strategically important Lyman on Saturday, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, after Ukrainian forces encircled the city in a counteroffensive that humiliated the Kremlin.
Russia’s own Tass and RIA news agencies announced that troops fled Lyman, citing the Russian defence ministry.
‘The Ukrainian flag is already in Lyman,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. ‘Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.’
A destroyed Russian tank on the road in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine. More than 60,000 Russian troops have been killed in the war so far, while over 2,300 tanks have been destroyed, Ukrainian authorities have claimed in their updated estimates of casuality numbers this morning
Houses destroyed by the Russian army in Kharkiv. But Moscow has this month faced considerable pushback from Kyiv in its ongoing invasion of the country, with a counteroffensive launched by Ukraine in late August leading to multiple humiliations and setbacks for the Kremlin
A member of the Ukrainian troop brings down a Donetsk Republic flag hoisted on a monument in Lyman, Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has declared that the recaptured city of Lyman is now ‘fully cleared’ of Putin’s forces
Ukrainian troops pose for a photo in Lyman, Ukraine. Russia was forced to withdraw troops from the strategically important Lyman on Saturday after Ukrainian forces encircled the city in a counteroffensive that humiliated the Kremlin
Ukrainian soldiers ride a top of infantry fighting vehicles in Novoselivka this month as the country’s counter-offensive continues
Heavily damaged St. George’s Monastery in the village of Dolyna in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine after the withdrawal of Russian troops this month
European heads condemn Russian annexations in Ukraine
The presidents of nine NATO countries in central and eastern Europe declared on Sunday they would never recognise the annexation by Russia of Ukrainian territory.
Their reaction comes two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex four Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine – Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia – following ‘referendums’ the West has dismissed as ‘sham’.
The presidents issued a joint statement saying they could not ‘stay silent in the face of the blatant violation of international law by the Russian Federation’.
‘We reiterate our support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,’ they said.
‘We do not recognise and will never recognise Russian attempts to annex any Ukrainian territory.’
The statement was issued by the presidents of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
Four of the signatories – Poland, and the three Baltic states – are on NATO’s eastern flank with Russia.
Two others – Romania and Slovakia – have borders with Ukraine.
Hungary, which also borders Ukraine, was notably absent from the list. Its nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, has sought close ties with Putin in recent years and railed against European Union sanctions on the Kremlin.
Also absent were Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia.
The statement, published on the website of the Polish president’s office, said the leaders of the signatory countries had ‘visited Kyiv during the war and witnessed with their own eyes the effects of Russian aggression’.
‘We support Ukraine in its defence against Russia’s invasion, demand Russia to immediately withdraw from all the occupied territories and encourage all (NATO) Allies to substantially increase their military aid to Ukraine,’ it said.
‘All those who commit crimes of aggression must be held accountable and brought to justice.’
The presidents said they stood by a decision NATO made 14 years ago, supporting Ukraine’s wish to join the trans-atlantic military alliance at a future date.
They did not comment on Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in 2014, or on Ukraine’s request last Friday for fast-track NATO membership following Russia’s annexation manoeuvre.
NATO members have hesitated at accepting a country at war – which, by treaty, would oblige the alliance to come to its defence.
NATO’s Article 5 says an attack on one member is tantamount to attack on all.
Meanwhile, Russian bombardments intensified after Moscow illegally annexed a swath of Ukrainian territory in a sharp escalation of the war.
Russia’s Constitutional court today recognised as lawful treaties signed by President Vladimir Putin to annex four Moscow-occupied regions of Ukraine, according to court documents published online.
The court ruled to ‘recognise…as corresponding to the constitution of the Russian Federation’ accords for Ukraine’s Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia to become part of Russia.
Meanwhile, the presidents of nine NATO countries in central and eastern Europe declared today they would never recognise the annexation by Russia of Ukrainian territory.
Also today, Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s home town of Krivyi Rih in the south of the country with suicide drones, which struck a school early this morning and destroyed two storeys of it, said Valentyn Reznichenko, the governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region. A fire sparked by the drone attack has been put out, he added.
In recent weeks Russia has begun using Iranian-made suicide drones to attack targets in Ukraine.
In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight last night, while two others made it through air defences.
Meanwhile, Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, authorities said today.
Ukraine’s military said on Sunday that it carried out a strike on a Russian ammunition depot in the country’s south, in Chernihiv, and hit other Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.
The reports of military activity could not be immediately verified.
After being encircled by Ukrainian forces, Russia pulled troops out of Lyman in the east on Saturday in what the British military described as a ‘significant political setback’ for Moscow. Taking the city paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push farther into territory Russia has occupied.
Lyman had been an important link in the Russian front line for ground communications and logistics. Lyman is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two regions that Russia annexed on Friday after forcing the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.
Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed to have inflicted damage on Ukrainian forces in battling to hold Lyman, but said outnumbered Russian troops were withdrawn to more favourable positions.
In a daily intelligence briefing, the UK’s Ministry of Defence called Lyman crucial because it has ‘a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defences’.
The British said they believed that the city had been held by ‘undermanned elements’ prior to the Russian withdrawal.
Moscow’s withdrawal from Lyman prompted immediate criticism from some Russian officials.
‘Further losses of territory in illegally occupied territories will almost certainly lead to an intensification of this public criticism and increase the pressure on senior commanders,’ the British military briefing said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin frames the Ukrainian gains as a US-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia and this week heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date.
Pope Francis has today implored Putin to ‘stop this spiral of violence and death’ in Ukraine, and denounced what he called the ‘absurd’ risk of nuclear war.
For several months, the Russian army stood close to the northern outskirts of Kharkiv, shelling the area with heavy weapons. Most of the houses in the district were damaged or destroyed
Houses destroyed by the Russian armed forces in Kharkiv, Ukraine
Damaged and destroyed homes are visible from Russian attacks on the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine
Ukrainian servicemen inspect a kindergarten which was used by Russian forces in the recently liberated village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine
Following Russia’s forced withdrawal from Lyman, the brutal Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said that Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons after.
‘In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and use of low-yield nuclear weapons,’ Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel.
Other top Putin allies, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov’s call was the most urgent and explicit.
Putin said last week he was not bluffing when he said he was prepared to defend Russia’s ‘territorial integrity’ with all available means, and on Friday made clear this extended to the new regions that Moscow has claimed.
Washington said it would respond decisively to any use of nuclear weapons and has spelled out to Moscow the ‘catastrophic consequences’ it would face.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Russia should consider using low-yield nuclear weapons and declare martial law in the border areas of the annexed areas of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin came under stinging criticism from his own side after losing the strategic eastern city of Lyman on Saturday
Ukrainian paratroopers drive with a Ukrainian flag on a pontoon bridge across Siverskiy-Donets river in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine
A Ukrainian flag waves in a residential area heavily damaged in the village of Dolyna in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine after the recent withdrawal of Russian troops
The retreat from Lyman came less than two weeks after Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists to beef up his forces in Ukraine.
Pope appeals to Putin to end ‘spiral of violence’ in Ukraine
Pope Francis has implored Russian President Vladimir Putin to ‘stop this spiral of violence and death’ in Ukraine, and denounced what he called the ‘absurd’ risk of nuclear war.
The pontiff made his strongest appeal yet on the seven-month war as he addressed the public in St Peter’s Square in Vatican City.
He also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to ‘be open’ to serious peace proposals.
And he exhorted the international community to ‘use all diplomatic instruments’ to end this ‘huge tragedy’ and ‘horror’ of war.
The bitter blame game revealed a deep split among the most vocal backers of Putin’s military conflict and his top brass, notably defence minister Sergei Shoigu and chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
Military commander and normally loyalist MP Andrey Gurulev claimed the Russian forces were heroes led by self-serving donkeys, he said: ‘I cannot explain this surrender in military terms.
‘The problem is a system of lies, reports of a good situation [when the reality is bad].
‘This rot comes from the top down.’
Kadyrov said that there is ‘no place for nepotism in the army’ and called Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, who is in charge of Russia’s forces fighting in the region, ‘mediocre’.
He said Lapin did not provide the ‘necessary communication, interaction and supply of ammunition’ to pro-Russian troops in Lyman, a town in the eastern Donetsk region that Moscow annexed a day earlier.
‘I would have demoted Lapin to the rank of private, deprived him of his awards and, with a machine gun in his hands, sent him to the front lines to wash away his shame in blood,’ Kadyrov told his 2.8 million followers on Telegram.
Lyman is 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. Ukrainian forces had pushed across the Oskil River as part of a counteroffensive that saw Kyiv retake vast swathes of territory beginning in September.
The city is a key transportation hub and has been an important site in the Russian front line for both ground communications and logistics.
The city is symbolically important too as it is in an area Russia claims to have annexed under its control.
Military commander and normally loyalist MP Andrey Gurulev claimed the Russian forces were heroes led by self-serving donkeys
A woman reacts as she stands in front of a house burning after being shelled in the city of Irpin, outside Kyiv, in March
A Ukrainian woman cries outside a residential building destroyed by artillery in a residential area in Kyiv, Ukraine in March
In a bizarre rant, Putin talked for 40 minutes about how the area would remain part of Russia ‘forever’, in a speech which included references to Satanism and colonialism.
Now with it gone, Ukraine can push further potentially into the occupied Luhansk region, which is one of four regions that Russia annexed Friday after an internationally criticised referendum vote at gunpoint.
‘Lyman is important because it is the next step towards the liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas. It is an opportunity to go further to Kreminna and Severodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important,’ said Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern forces.
It comes as Ukraine announced its determination to join NATO by applying via an accelerated route this week.
In a speech on Friday, Putin spoke to hundreds of ashen-faced officials, and the despot lashed out at the West’s ‘neo-colonial’ foreign policy.
‘I want the Ukrainian authorities and their real masters in the West to hear me, so that they remember this,’ Putin said.
‘People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia are now becoming our citizens for ever.’
He claimed the occupied regions wanted to join Russia because they were upset about the ‘tragedy’ of the collapse of the Soviet Union. ‘We call on the Kyiv regime to immediately end hostilities, end the war that they unleashed back in 2014 and return to the negotiating table,’ he added.
But the 69-year-old Russian president ruled out discussing the return of the four eastern regions. ‘There is nothing stronger than their willingness to go back to their true historic homeland,’ he said in yet another denial of Ukraine’s right to exist.
The reference to 2014 appears to be in reference to Putin’s annexation of Crimea, another hostile act his Russia took against Ukraine.
The four Ukrainian regions Putin seeks to steal are Luhansk and Donetsk, in the east, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, in the south, but his armed forces are not in full control and fighting is continuing across all of them
Ukrainian forces are advancing on the Russians after encircling the Lyman area (Ukrainian troop lines marked in red)
Even so, when facing Ukrainian gains on the battlefield – which he frames as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia – Putin this week heightened his threats of nuclear force and used his most aggressive, anti-Western rhetoric to date.
Despite Putin’s annexation of four regions in Ukraine on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his military have vowed to keep on fighting to liberate the annexed regions and other Russian-occupied areas.
Ukrainian officials said Saturday their forces had surrounded some 5,000 Russian forces who were trying to hold the eastern city of Lyman, which is located in Luhansk, one of the four annexed areas. The number of encircled troops could be lower because of casualties.
‘The Russian grouping in the area of Lyman is surrounded,’ Serhii Cherevatyi said hours earlier. He confirmed Ukraine was inside the town later that afternoon.
‘We’re already in Lyman, but there are battles,’ he said.
The Russian defence ministry’s statement made no mention of its troops being encircled at Lyman, diverging starkly from Ukraine’s version of events.
Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, posted video online Saturday purporting to show grinning Ukrainian soldiers at a monument on the outskirts of Lyman, waving a signed Ukrainian flag.
‘October 1. We’re unfurling our state flag and establishing it on our land. Lyman will be Ukraine,’ one of the soldiers said, standing atop a military vehicle.
Neither side’s battlefield assertions could be independently verified.
It remained unclear whether Ukrainian forces have entered the city itself. Kyiv-appointed Luhansk Governor Serhiy Haidai claimed that all routes to resupply Russian forces in Lyman were blocked.
Russia has not confirmed that its forces were cut off, but said its troops had withdrawn from the area ‘due to the risk of encirclement’.
Haidai said the besieged troops had begged on Friday to be allowed to leave Lyman. Their commanders refused, he claimed.
Kadyrov launched a blistering attack on Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, the commander overseeing Lyman, for the calamity, who he derided as a ‘mediocrity’.
The Chechen strongman also said he personally had warned Russia’s army chief, General Valery Gerasimov, of a looming disaster.
‘The general assured me he had no doubts about Lapin’s talent for leadership and did not think a retreat was possible in … Lyman and its surroundings,’ he said.
Kadyrov demanded that the commander in charge at Lyman – Colonel-General Alexander Lapin – should be stripped of his high rank and Hero of Russia honour.
‘He is being covered up by his superiors in the General Staff,’ said Kadyrov.
‘If I had my way I would have demoted Lapin to private, deprived him of his awards, and sent him to the front line to wash off his shame with the rifle in his hands.’
He next accused Defence Minister Shoigu of failing to tell Putin the truth about the battlefield.
‘I do not know what the Defence Ministry reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief [Putin], but in my personal opinion, we need to take more drastic measures.’
He ranted that the armed forces had failed to rout Ukraine’s supposed ‘Satanists and fascists’.
Even Putin himself came under stinging criticism from his own side over his latest impending ‘surrender’ in occupied Ukraine.
Women and children from war-torn Ukraine, including a mother carrying an infant, arrive in Poland at the Medyka border crossing in March
The bitter blame game revealed a deep split among the most vocal backers of Putin’s military conflict and his top brass, notably Shoigu and Gerasimov.
It showed key players in the Putin camp turning on each other, implicitly criticising Putin for sticking by failed commanders.
Military commander and normally loyalist MP Andrey Gurulev hit out: ‘I cannot explain this surrender in military terms. It is probably a milestone not only militarily, but also politically, especially now.…
‘The problem is a system of lies, reports of a good situation [when the reality is bad]. This rot comes from the top down.’
He claimed the Russian forces were heroes led by self-serving donkeys.
He stormed on state TV: ‘Did we not know the number of forces that were advancing on Lyman? If not, where was the intelligence?
‘The 144th Division worked perfectly on the ground, as did army aviation. The artillery did not stop working at all.
‘The whole problem is not on the ground, but in the [army general staff] where they still do not understand, and fail to own the situation.’
Telegram channel Rybar warned: ‘A media coup has started…against the Russian Ministry of Defence – or rather its leadership and commanders on the ground.’
There are claims Kadyrov could be in line to take over as defence minister, or Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner private army which has recruited tens of thousands of serving prisoners to act as ‘cannon fodder’ in Putin’s forces.
Both are close Putin allies and frighten many more mainstream Russian politicians.
Putin has so far been reluctant to dispense with Shoigu, a long time political ally.
‘Everyone is unhappy with one thing – the cumulative effect of years of ‘successful’ reports from the command in the field,’ said Rybar.
‘Now this has turned into yet another failure on the frontline.’
Senior figures within the Russian establishment have started to turn on Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu (pictured right with Putin), accusing him of feeing the Russian President untruthful reports that fail to communicate how dire things really are
General Valery Gerasimov, General of the Army, the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, is also in the firing line after the humiliation surrounding the liberation of Lyman by Ukrainian forces
Meanwhile Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of targeting two humanitarian convoys in recent days, killing dozens of civilians.
On Saturday the governor of the Kharkiv region, Oleh Syniehubov, said 20 civilians were killed in an attack on a convoy of people trying to flee the Kupiansky district, calling it ‘cruelty that can’t be justified.’
The Security Service of Ukraine, the secret police force known by the acronym SBU, posted photographs of the attacked convoy.
At least one truck appeared to have been blown up, with burned corpses in what remained of its truck bed.
Another vehicle at the front of the convoy also had been ablaze. Bodies lay on the side of the road or still inside their vehicles, which appeared pockmarked with bullet holes.
The SBU said the convoy was attacked with ‘small arms fire,’ while the governor said it was shelled. The discrepancy could not be immediately resolved. The exact date of the attack was not announced.
Russian forces have not acknowledged or commented on the attack. Russian troops have retreated from much of the Kharkiv region after a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive last month but have continued to shell the area.
In an apparent attempt to secure Moscow’s hold on the newly annexed territory, Russian forces seized the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Ihor Murashov, around 4 pm Friday, according to the Ukrainian state nuclear company Energoatom.
That was just hours after Putin signed treaties to absorb Moscow-controlled Ukrainian territory into Russia, including the area around the nuclear plant.
Energoatom said Russian troops stopped Murashov’s car, blindfolded him and then took him to an undisclosed location.
Russia did not publicly comment on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Saturday that Russia told it that ‘the director-general of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was temporarily detained to answer questions.’
The Vienna-based agency did not immediately elaborate.
‘His detention by (Russia) jeopardizes the safety of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant,’ said Energoatom President Petro Kotin, demanding the director’s immediate release.
Soviet-era gas masks lie on the floor at the corridor of School No. 2 which was used as a Russian military base and torture site in the recently retaken town of Izium, Ukraine
A church can be seen in the distance through an apartment building destroyed by an airstrike in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine
Olha Zaparozhchenko stands near the grave of her brother Ivan Shabelnyk, left, in the recently liberated village of Kapitolivka near Izium, Ukraine
The power plant repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians continued running it after Russian troops seized the power station, and its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure amid ongoing shelling nearby.
In its heaviest barrage in weeks, Russia’s military on Friday pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones, with one strike in the Zaporizhzhia region’s capital killing 30 people and wounding 88.
In a daily briefing on Saturday the British Defense Ministry said the Russians ‘almost certainly’ struck a humanitarian convoy there with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles.
Russia is increasingly using anti-aircraft missiles to conduct attacks on the ground likely due to a lack of munitions, the British military said.
The attack came while Putin was preparing to sign the annexation treaties, which included the Zaporizhzhia region. Russian-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces, but gave no evidence.
In other fighting reported Saturday, four people were killed and six injured by Russian shelling in the Donetsk region on Friday, governor Pavlo Kyrylenko reported.
The Russian army also struck the southern Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv twice overnight, once with drones and the second time with missiles, according to regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim. Five people were injured, including a 3-month-old baby, he said.
After Friday’s land grab, Russia now claims sovereignty over 15 per cent of Ukraine, in what NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called ‘the largest attempted annexation of European territory by force since the Second World War.’
He added that the war is at ‘a pivotal moment.’
Zelenskyy on Friday formally applied for NATO membership, upping the pressure on Western allies to defend Ukraine.
In Washington, President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday that provides another infusion of military and economic aid to Ukraine.
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