Lyman, Ukraine (AP) — The dead body of a Russian soldier was found in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday after a comrade’s retreat marked Moscow’s latest defeat, even though the Senate of the Russian Federation’s parliament rubber-stamped Russia’s annexation. lay in the streets of the important city of Regions of Ukraine on Tuesday.
Russian forces withdrew from Lyman over the weekend to avoid being surrounded by Ukrainian forces. The liberation of the city gave Ukraine a vital vantage point from which to advance its offensive deep into Russian-held territory.
Ukrainian forces recovered the bodies of their comrades after a fierce battle for control of Lyman, an important logistical and transportation hub, but did not immediately move the bodies of the Russians.
“We fight for our land, our children, and give people a better life, but the price is very high,” said a Ukrainian soldier named Root.
Lyman’s inhabitants emerged from the cellars where they hid during the battle for control of the city to build bonfires for cooking. The city has had no water, electricity or gas since May.
The 85-year-old identified herself by her first name and patronymic, Valentyna Kuzmichna, and recalled a recent explosion nearby.
“I was standing in the hall five meters away, and then I heard a loud noise,” she said.
Russian forces launched more missile attacks on Ukrainian cities on Tuesday as Ukrainian forces pressed for counterattacks in the east and south.
Multiple missiles hit Kharkov, Ukraine’s second-largest city, damaging infrastructure and causing power outages. Kharkiv governor Orevshinievbov said one person was killed and at least two others were injured, including a 9-year-old girl.
In the south, four civilians were injured when Russian missiles hit the city of Nikopol.
After regaining Lyman control in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces moved further east, possibly as far as the border of the neighboring Luhansk region as they advanced toward Kreminna, according to the Washington-based war researcher. The institute said in its latest report. Analysis of combat situations.
On Monday, Ukrainian forces also made significant advances in the south, raising flags in the villages of Arkhanske, Milorubivka, Khreshchenivka, Mikhalyvka and Novovoronsovka.
Ukraine’s success in the East and South also came when Russia moved to absorb four regions of Ukraine in the course of the fighting there.
The Federal Council, the upper house of Russia’s parliament, voted on Tuesday to ratify a treaty making Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in the south part of Russia.
The House of Representatives quickly rubber-stamped the accession deal after last week’s Kremlin-orchestrated annexation “referendum” that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as illegal and fraudulent.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to approve the annexation treaty quickly.
Russia’s move to integrate the Ukrainian region was so hasty that even the exact boundaries of the territories to be absorbed were unknown.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Donetsk and Luhansk are on the same administrative border that existed before the outbreak of conflict between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces in 2014. He said he would join Russia. He said the border between Zaporizhia and Kherson has not yet been decided.
But a senior Russian parliamentarian had a different view. Pavel Krasheninnikov said Zaporizhzhia would be absorbed within its “administrative boundaries”. This means that Moscow plans to incorporate some of the areas still under Kyiv’s control. He said similar logic would apply to Kherson, but Russia would include two districts of the neighboring Mykolaiv region now occupied by Russia.
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Shrek reported from Kyiv.