Russian forces leave Lyman
Russian troops have pulled out of the town of the strategic city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine “due to the risk to be encircled” and moved to “more advantageous frontiers”, Russia’s ministry of defence said via Telegram on Saturday.
Ukraine forces encircled Russian forces in the eastern town earlier today where Russia’s forces at Lyman totalled about 5,000 to 5,500 soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers were later seen raising the nation’s flag before the entrance sign to the city.
The retreat comes a day after Vladimir Putin signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.
Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern forces, previously said:
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 Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important.
Key events
Ukraine’s minister for foreign affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, has thanked the US for its latest assistance package.
In today’s call with @SecBlinken, I thanked the U.S. for its unfaltering support, including the latest $12.35 bln in new security and budgetary assistance. Secretary assured that regardless of any Putin’s illegal steps, the U.S. will keep supporting Ukraine in our just struggle.
— Dmytro Kuleba (@DmytroKuleba) October 1, 2022
Here is some more background on Ramzan Kadyrov’s comments that Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after a major new defeat on the battlefield.
Russia has the world’s largest atomic arsenal, including low-yield tactical nuclear weapons that are designed to be deployed against opposing armies.
Other top Putin allies, including former president Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested that Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov’s call was the most urgent and explicit, Reuters reports.
The influential ruler of the Caucasus region of Chechnya has been a vocal champion of the war in Ukraine, with Chechen forces forming part of the vanguard of the Russian army there. Kadyrov is widely believed to be personally close to Putin, who appointed him to govern restive Chechnya in 2007.
In his message, Kadyrov described Colonel-General Alexander Lapin, commander of the Russian forces fighting at Lyman, as a “mediocrity”, and suggested that he should be demoted to private and stripped of his medals.
“Due to a lack of elementary military logistics, today we have abandoned several settlements and a large piece of territory,” he said.
Kadyrov said that two weeks before he had raised the possibility of a defeat at Lyman with Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia’s general staff, but that Gerasimov had dismissed the idea.
Gemma McSherry
Liz Truss has said a series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.
In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”.
The UK prime minister was updated on developments in the situation unfolding in the Baltic Sea as she engaged in talks with her Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, in Downing Street on Saturday.
Suspicions have been rising in western capitals that the explosions on the pipelines were attacks carried out by Russia as a means of intensifying pressure in western governments over energy supplies. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has dismissed any such claims and said in a speech on Friday that “Anglo Saxons” were responsible.
Chechnya head : Moscow should consider low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine
Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia’s region of Chechnya, said Moscow should consider using a low-yield nuclear weapon in Ukraine after a major new defeat on the battlefield.
In a message on Telegram addressing Russia’s loss of its stronghold of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, Kadyrov wrote: “In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons”.
Kadyrov was speaking a day after President Vladimir Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions – including Donetsk, where Lyman is located – and placed them under Russia’s nuclear umbrella, saying Moscow would defend the lands it had seized “with all our strength and all our means”, Reuters reports.
Summary
It’s 6pm in Ukraine. Here’s the latest:
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Russian troops pulled out of the town of the strategic city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine “due to the risk to be encircled” and moved to “more advantageous frontiers” Russia’s ministry of defence said via Telegram on Saturday. The retreat comes a day after Vladimir Putin signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine.
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The IOC president Thomas Bach has been accused of violating the game’s principles by suggesting that Russian athletes might be allowed to return to competition provided they did not support the invasion of Ukraine. Bach told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera “This war has not been started by the Russian athletes”.
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Russian authorities informed the International Atomic Energy Agency that the head of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “temporarily detained” for questioning. Ihor Murashov was detained on his way from Europe’s largest nuclear plant to the town of Enerhodar at about 4pm on Friday.
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Kharkiv Oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov said Ukrainian authorities found the bodies of at least 20 people in a civilian convoy near the city of Kupiansk. He believed they were killed while they attempted to flee Russian soldiers, according to the Kyiv Independent.
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Russia is trying to transfer the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to the Russian energy firm Rosatom, the head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company said. Speaking with BBC News on Saturday, Petro Kotin said “they are trying to make our personnel just to sign the accurate deals for the work at Rosatom”.
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The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said she shared key information on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines with Liz Truss at a meeting in Downing Street. “This is sabotage and it is critical infrastructure. So of course, this is a very serious situation,” told reporters outside No 10.
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The Ministry of Defence said Russia’s expansion strategy has resulted in “killing civilians it now claims are its own citizens”.The MoD said Russia is expending “strategically valuable military assets” in attempts to gain tactical advantage.
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Turkey which has been at the centre of mediation between the west and Russia, rejected Russia’s annexation of Ukraine, calling the decision a “grave violation” of international law.
Russia has not been re-elected to the UN aviation agency’s governing council, in a boost for western powers that wanted to hold Moscow accountable for its invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday, Russia did not receive enough votes to remain in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s 36-nation governing council, during the agency’s assembly which runs through to 7 October in Montreal, Reuters reports.
Poppy Khoza, the assembly’s president and South Africa’s director general of civil aviation, called the circumstance “unprecedented”.
Luke Harding
Vladimir Putin faced severe embarrassment when Ukrainian soldiers liberated the key eastern city of Lyman, raising the blue-and-yellow national flag above its entrance sign, hours after Russia’s president announced that the area was Moscow’s “for ever”.
Ukraine’s armed forces said they had entirely surrounded the city, trapping thousands of Russian soldiers inside. The governor of the Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, said the besieged troops had begged on Friday to be allowed to leave Lyman. Their commanders refused, he claimed.
Read more here:
Russian forces leave Lyman
Russian troops have pulled out of the town of the strategic city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine “due to the risk to be encircled” and moved to “more advantageous frontiers”, Russia’s ministry of defence said via Telegram on Saturday.
Ukraine forces encircled Russian forces in the eastern town earlier today where Russia’s forces at Lyman totalled about 5,000 to 5,500 soldiers. Ukrainian soldiers were later seen raising the nation’s flag before the entrance sign to the city.
The retreat comes a day after Vladimir Putin signed “accession treaties” formalising Russia’s illegal annexation of four occupied regions in Ukraine, marking the largest forcible takeover of territory in Europe since the second world war.
Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine’s eastern forces, previously said:
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 Sievierodonetsk, and it is psychologically very important.
Russia’s Gazprom has suspended gas deliveries to Italy’s Eni, blaming a transport problem in Austria, AFP reports.
The Italian energy giant said on Saturday:
Gazprom told us that it was not able to confirm the delivery of the volumes demanded for today, citing the impossibility of gas transport through Austria. Russian gas flows to Eni via the Tarvisio entry point will be naught.
Before the war in Ukraine, nearly 45% of Italy’s imported gas came from Russia. Most of the gas from Russia to Italy passes through Ukraine via the Trans Austria Gas Pipeline.
Ukraine’s state security service shared a video on Twitter on Saturday showing the “scene of a war crime by Russian troops” with damaged cars and charred human remains.
Russian troops recently shot a civilian column between occupied Svatov in Luhansk region and liberated Kupyansk in Kharkiv region, they said.
Warning: this video contains graphic images.
Відео з місця воєнного злочину російських військ, які нещодавно розстріляли цивільну колону між окупованим Сватовим Луганської області та звільненим Куп’янськом на Харківщині.
Зробимо усе, аби окупанти відповіли за цей кривавий злочин!
Детальніше ➡️ https://t.co/Bc74Rum1eb pic.twitter.com/XJZjZuLHZB
— СБ України (@ServiceSsu) October 1, 2022
Russia accuses International Olympic Committee president of violating game principles
The IOC president Thomas Bach has been accused of violating the Games’ principles by suggesting that its athletes might be allowed to return to competition provided they did not support the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reports.
Bach told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera:
It is not about necessarily having Russia back. It’s about having athletes with a Russian passport who do not support the war back in competition … This war has not been started by the Russian athletes.
Russia has been barred from competing under its flag or playing its national anthem at successive Games as punishment for widespread doping violations.
Russian news agencies quoted Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin as responding:
The main task of the international Olympic movement is to provide athletes with equal access to participation in the Olympic Games, regardless of their views and religions, traditions and citizenship. Bach’s latest statement goes against Olympic principles.
Russian authorities have informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that the head of Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was “temporarily detained” for questioning, Reuters reports.
Earlier, we reported that the UN nuclear watchdog was seeking clarification from Russian authorities after Ihor Murashov was detained on his way from Europe’s largest nuclear plant to the town of Enerhodar at about 4pm on Friday.
Petro Kotin, the head of Ukraine’s atomic energy company, said his detention “jeopardises the safety of operation of Ukraine and Europe’s largest nuclear power plant”.
Here are the latest photos from Ukraine and elsewhere:
The Kyiv Independent reports that Kharkiv Oblast governor Oleh Syniehubov has said Ukrainian authorities found the bodies of at least 20 people in a civilian convoy near the city of Kupiansk. Syniehubov believes they were killed while they attempted to flee Russian soldiers.
Ukrainian news website Suspilne reports that there were six cars in the convoy which were found covered in bullet holes and burned out. According to Suspilne, a child was among the dead. Syniehubov described the massacre as “cruelty that has no justification”.
Russian-installed officials in Ukraine’s east accused Ukraine of shelling a convoy of refugees being evacuated from the Kharkiv region and killing around 30 civilians, as reported by Russian state media on Thursday.
It was not immediately clear if they were referring to the same convoy.
