War in Ukraine: Kyiv celebrates the recapture of Liman

The recapture of the strategically important city of Liman was announced by its troops Ukrainianwith Russia counting one painful defeat to its credit.

The recapture took place on Saturday, just one day after Putin preached the annexation of almost a fifth of Ukraine -including Donetsk, where the Port is located- and placed these regions under Russia’s nuclear umbrella. Kyiv and the West condemned the ceremony as a farce.

Ukrainian soldiers announced the seizure in a video filmed outside the city council building in downtown Liman and posted on social media.

“Dear Ukrainians – today the armed forces of Ukraine … liberated and took control of the city of Liman, Donetsk region”, says one of the soldiers. At the end of the video, a group of soldiers cheers and drops Russian flags from the roof of the building and raises a Ukrainian flag in their place.

Hours later, Russia’s defense ministry announced it was withdrawing troops from the area because “there is a threat of encirclement.”

Liman was captured in May by Russian forces, who were using the city as a logistics and transport hub for their operations in the northern part of Donetsk Oblast. Its recapture is Ukraine’s biggest battlefield success since the blitz counter-offensive launched last month in the northeastern region of Kharkiv.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has promised faster gains in Donbas, which includes the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, much of which is under Russian control.

“Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags has increased in Donbass. In a week we will have more”he emphasized in the evening in his videotaped speech.

The Ukrainian armed forces said in a statement this morning that their warplanes had carried out 29 strikes in the past 24 hours, destroying weapons and anti-aircraft missile systems, while ground troops hit command posts, ammunition depots and anti-aircraft missile arrays.

Russian forces launched four missiles and carried out 16 airstrikes, while using Iranian-made “Shahed-136” drones to attack infrastructure, the Ukrainian statement said, adding that more than 30 settlements were damaged, mainly in the south and southeastern Ukraine.

Reuters was unable to confirm both sides’ claims about developments on the battlefield.

Satisfaction in the USA

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed satisfaction with the capture of Liman, saying it would create new problems for the Russian armed forces. “We are very encouraged by what we are seeing right now”Austin told reporters Saturday.

The US defense secretary pointed out that the port is on supply lines that Russia uses to push its troops and material south and west. “Without these roads, it will be more difficult. Thus a kind of dilemma is created in the promotion of the Russians”.

Austin did not say whether he believed Ukraine’s seizure of Liman could trigger an escalation on its part of Russiaalthough US officials have widely denounced Russia’s nuclear rhetoric in recent days and US President Joe Biden has publicly called on Vladimir Putin not to use nuclear weapons.

Kadyrov calls for the use of nuclear weapons

Ukraine’s successes have angered Putin allies such as Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the southern Russian region of Chechnya.

“In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to and including declaring martial law in the border areas and using low-power nuclear weapons”Kadyrov wrote on the Telegram messaging app ahead of Zelensky’s speech.

Other top officials, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, have said Russia may have to resort to nuclear weaponsbut Kadyrov’s statement was the most categorical so far.

Ukraine says the capture of Liman will allow it to advance into the Luhansk region, the full capture of which Moscow announced in early July.