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Ukraine controls Lyman; Russia uses Drones

Ukraine controls Lyman; Russia uses Drones

Newslooks- KYIV, Ukraine (AP)

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Sunday that his forces now control Lyman: “As of 12:30 p.m. (0930 GMT) Lyman is cleared fully. Thank you to our militaries, our warriors,” he said in a video address. Ukraine took back full control of this strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war. Russia attacked the Ukrainian president’s hometown and other targets Sunday with suicide drones.

Ukrainian servicemen drive a tank on the way to Siversk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Inna Varenytsia)

Russia’s loss of the eastern city of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening threats to use nuclear force.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s land grab has threatened to push the conflict to a dangerous new level. It also prompted Ukraine to formally apply for NATO membership, a bid that won backing Sunday from nine central and eastern European NATO members fearful that Russia’s aggression could eventually target them, too.

A man drives by motorbike on a destroyed bridge across Oskil river during evacuation in recently liberated town Kupiansk, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Russia’s military didn’t comment on the situation in Lyman on Sunday, after announcing Saturday that it was withdrawing its forces there to more favorable positions.

The British military described the recapture of Lyman as a “significant political setback” for Moscow. Taking the city paves the way for Ukrainian troops to potentially push farther into Russian-occupied territory.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The body of a Russian serviceman lies on the ground near a destroyed van with a sign “Z” on its door, in the recently liberated town of Kupiansk, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

In southern Ukraine, Zelenskyy’s hometown of Krivyi Rih came under Russian attack by a suicide drone that destroyed two stories of a school early Sunday, said Valentyn Reznichenko, governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region.

Russia in recent weeks has begun using Iranian-made suicide drones to attack targets in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defenses.

Abandoned Russian tanks stand on the road in recently liberated town Kupiansk, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A car carrying four men who wanted to forage for mushrooms in a forest in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region struck a mine, exploding the vehicle and killing all those inside, local authorities said Sunday.

Russian attacks also targeted the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian authorities said Sunday. And Ukraine’s military said Sunday it carried out strikes on multiple Russian command posts, ammunition depots and two S-300 anti-aircraft batteries.

The reports of military activity couldn’t be immediately verified.

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT – The dead body of a driver is seen inside the truck in the recently liberated town of Kupiansk, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian forces have retaken swaths of territory, notably in the northeast around Kharkiv, in a counteroffensive in recent weeks that has embarrassed the Kremlin and prompted rare domestic criticism of Putin’s war.

Lyman, which Ukraine recaptured by encircling Russian troops, is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing what was left of the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.

In his nightly address Saturday, Zelenskyy said: “Over the past week, there have been more Ukrainian flags in the Donbas. In a week there will be even more.”

A man hauls his motorbike on a destroyed bridge across Oskil river during evacuation in recently liberated town Kupiansk, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defense Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has “a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defenses.”

The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found.

AP journalists located 10 torture sites in the town, including a deep pit in a residential compound, a clammy underground jail that reeked of urine, a medical clinic and a kindergarten.

Mykola Mosyakyn shows scars on his back after torture by Russian soldiers in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. He was beaten repeatedly, his feet shot, and he described how they covered his face with a rag and poured water from a kettle onto him to mimic the sensation of drowning. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Russian officials release limited information about military activity in what the Kremlin still refuses to call a war. They routinely claim that Russia exclusively targets Ukrainian military forces, the foreigners supporting them or Western-supplied weaponry.

Putin frames the Ukrainian gains as a U.S.-orchestrated effort to destroy Russia, and last week he heightened threats of nuclear force in some of his toughest, most anti-Western rhetoric to date.

Recent developments have raised fears of all-out conflict between Russia and the West.

Ukrainian soldiers clean the muzzle of Ukrainian howitzer D-30 near Siversk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Inna Varenytsia)

The leaders of Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania and Slovakia issued a joint statement backing a path to NATO membership for Ukraine, and calling on all 30 members of the U.S.-led security bloc to ramp up military aid for Kyiv.

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, meanwhile, on Sunday announced the delivery of 16 wheeled armored howitzers produced in Slovakia to Ukraine next year. The weapons will be financed jointly with Denmark, Norway and Germany,

Mykola Mosyakyn shows scars on his back after torture by Russian soldiers in the recently liberated town of Izium, Ukraine, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022. He was beaten repeatedly, his feet shot, and he described how they covered his face with a rag and poured water from a kettle onto him to mimic the sensation of drowning. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Russia on Sunday moved ahead with steps meant to make its land grab look like a legal process aimed at helping people persecuted by Ukraine, with rubber-stamp approval by the Constitutional Court and draft laws being pushed through the Kremlin-friendly parliament. Outside Russia, the annexation has been widely denounced as violating international law.

Meanwhile, international concerns are mounting about the fate of Europe’s largest nuclear plant after Russian forces detained its director for alleged questioning.

A woman poses for a photo session at the Dnipro riverbank in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The International Atomic Energy Agency announced Sunday that its director-general, Rafael Grossi would visit Kyiv and Moscow in the coming days to discuss the situation around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. Grossi is continuing to push for “a nuclear safety and security zone” around the site.

Children play at the Dnipro riverbank in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

The Zaporizhzhia plant is in one of the four regions that Moscow illegally annexed on Friday, and repeatedly has been caught in the crossfire of the war. Ukrainian technicians have continued running the power station after Russian troops seized it, and its last reactor was shut down in September as a precautionary measure.

Pope Francis blesses faithful at the end of the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio overlooking St.Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 2, 2022. Pope Francis has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, imploring him to “stop this spiral of violence and death” in Ukraine. The pontiff also called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “be open” to serious peace proposals. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

Pope Francis on Sunday decried Russia’s nuclear threats and appealed to Putin to stop “this spiral of violence and death.”

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