Russia’s annexation announcement is news for the people of Lyman, Ukraine

LYMAN, Ukraine – As dusk gathered on Sunday, Elena Kharkivska stood in the courtyard of her apartment complex, reflecting on what she had just learned: If she had never moved, she would have lived in Russia for a long time. a day.

On Friday, President Vladimir V. Putin decided that four regions of Ukraine – including Donetsk province, including Ms. Kharkovska’s hometown, Lyman – should be incorporated into Russia.

But before the news could reach her, Ukrainian soldiers took control of the city again, as Russian forces retreated.

Without electricity, radio or internet, Lyman residents say they know nothing about the grand ceremony Putin held in the Kremlin on Friday to celebrate a annexation that the world condemned. is a fake.

“I heard nothing about it,” said Mrs. Kharkovska as she witnessed a pot of buckwheat boil over a campfire. The town has been without cooking gas for months.

“I was shocked,” she said, laughing. “Nobody told us anything” on Friday about whether her town was supposed to have been transplanted into Russia, or on Saturday, when Ukrainian troops recaptured it.

“I’m funny because it reminds me of a saying, ‘Without me, they would have married me,'” she said.

The breakneck speed that Russia claimed to have possessed and subsequently lost Lyman encapsulated the energy of Ukraine’s months-long blitzkrieg to recapture territory from Moscow. The liberation of Lyman, a strategic railway hub, was not only an important military victory, but also a powerful symbol of Ukraine’s unlucky ability to publicly humiliate a larger enemy and seems to be stronger.

Ukraine has only a short time left to expand its counter-offensive before troops are mobilized in a convocation that Putin ordered last month to reinforce Russia’s positions in Ukraine. Then again, Ukrainian cities in areas that Moscow now considers Russian territory could return to Russian control.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and Western leaders have called Russia’s declarations of annexation pointless and illegal. They say that the territory is and will remain Ukraine. The rapid capture of Lyman by the Ukrainian Army within hours of Putin’s speech underscored the precarious hold of the Russian leader over the so-called annexed territory. In one Quick withdrawalThe Russians left behind official documents, military vehicles and the bodies of their soldiers.

According to Ukrainian and Western military analysts, the withdrawal highlights the weakness of the Russian Army, but it also leads to a higher risk of escalation. An insulted Russia could respond by deploying thousands of newly recruited soldiers or using the world’s largest nuclear arsenal.

Serhiy Hrabsky, a former colonel in the army, said the Ukrainian Army, outnumbered and outnumbered by the Russians, captured Lyman through a strategy of attacking neighboring roads and villages, and never again now engaged in a head-to-head battle for the city, said Serhiy Hrabsky, a former colonel in the army.

Fighting in the pine forests and on the banks of the Oskil River, Ukrainian forces moved from village to village, systematically intercepting any Russian supply routes or retreats. For the Russians, a journey through the pine forest has become a deadly gamble.

Colonel Hrabsky explained: “The key success of Operation Lyman was that we left behind any idea of ​​a frontal attack. It was only a matter of time, he added, before Russian troops in Lyman ran out of ammunition and fuel.

When I reached the city on Sunday, the jungle surrounding the town bore the mark of a fierce artillery battle that had lasted for weeks. Broken branches were scattered on the road. Entire villages along the route had become ruins.

“Look at the destroyed houses,” said Roman Plakhaniv, a lieutenant in the Kramatorsk County police force, who arrived on Sunday to patrol the city. “This is a nice, normal town. People from another country came and destroyed it”.

In the city, fallen leaves fly all over the streets. Dogs get lost between houses. Bread trucks were still parked in the demolished batch of bread, waiting for the morning distributions that would never arrive.

Police say about 5,000 of the city’s 22,000 pre-war population remain.

On Sunday, Ukrainian soldiers and police patrolled the streets, looking for lost Russians. Sometimes explosions can be heard as demining crews detonate. Otherwise, the city appears to be under Ukrainian control.

In front of the mayor’s office lay a pile of Russian propaganda posters, apparently torn up and partially burned in the flames. Decorated in white, blue and red of the Russian tricolor, they were drenched with rain. One person explains the meaning of Russian state symbols: the national flag and anthem.

Inside the Town Hall are notices explaining how to get a building permit under the occupation authority and a phone number to call for Russian subsidies, hinting at plans by Russian officials to clean up. cancel.

Copies of a newspaper called the Donetsk Republic were scattered on the floor. An issue published on September 15 contained an article titled “Defense of the Republic and Russia’s Borders,” apparently intended to assuage fears that the Ukrainian counter-offensive is well-founded.

The article explains that “Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has stated that during the special operation Russia will not lose its military power and will defend its sovereignty.”

The basis of Russia’s withdrawal, and the blue and yellow Ukrainian flags flying overhead, exposed the falsehoods in the newspaper’s statements, as well as the lies of the president that the newspaper said. quote.

In addition to demining, initial efforts to restore control will focus on investigating war crimes and repairing gas and electric utilities, Ukrainian officials said.

At one point, on my way into town, I passed what appeared to be the remains of a Ukrainian attack on Russian soldiers trying to flee the city in a civilian truck. Truck doors were flung open, sleeping bags, pads, military coats, rations, shoes and other items spilled onto the street. Nearby, by the roadside, were anti-tank mines and the bodies of half a dozen Russian soldiers.

A Ukrainian demining team checked for explosives: Ukrainians attached ropes to the bodies to pull and shove them from a distance, fearing they would explode.

When asked how the Russians died, one soldier shrugged and said, “They came to a foreign land.”

Maria Varennikova Reporting contributions from Kramatorsk, Ukraine.