Russia’s withdrawal from Lyman comes a day after Putin said he was annexing the region.

RIVNE, Ukraine — Russian forces withdrew from the strategic eastern city of Lyman on Saturday, a significant setback just a day after President Vladimir V. Putin’s internationally derided declaration that the region where it lies was now part of Russia.

The battle for Lyman, a city in Donetsk Province with a pre-war population of 20,000, is particularly poorly timed for the Kremlin after it illegally declared its annexation of four regions in Ukraine where battles are raging and Kyiv’s stunning victories in the country’s northeast last month.

It puts additional pressure on the Kremlin, which has been facing blowback at home over its setbacks on the battlefield and the conscription of hundreds of thousands of men to fight in Ukraine.

Hours after Ukraine’s defense ministry said its forces were entering the city, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said in it had made the decision to pull out of Lyman. Confirmation of the withdrawal staved off a potential worst-case scenario for the Kremlin in which Russian troops were trapped in the city.

“Due to the risk to be encircled, the allied forces were withdrawn” from the city to “more advantageous” locations, the ministry said in a statement posted on Telegram.

The acknowledgment came after Ukraine’s Defense Ministry posted a video on Twitter showing two soldiers unfurling the country’s yellow-and-blue flag at a sign marking the city limits. The army “will always have the decisive vote in today’s and any future ‘referendums,’” it added in a pointed reference to the annexation process.

A senior Ukrainian military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Lyman was “already liberated.”

“A mop-up is ongoing,” the official said. “The Russians have nowhere to run.”

Last month’s sweeping and successful Ukrainian counteroffensive in the country’s northeast sent Russian soldiers in full retreat, leaving Moscow’s troops in Lyman isolated and severed from their supply lines. But that Ukrainian victory came at a cost: Russian forces managed to rush troops to Lyman, fighting viciously for the city amid Mr. Putin’s new territorial claims in eastern and southern Ukraine.

Lyman, which fell to the Russians in May, serves as a rail hub that flows into Donbas, the mineral rich region comprised of Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk Province that has long been the focus of Mr. Putin’s war aims.

Ukraine’s ability to recapture Lyman is the most significant proof yet that Russia’s ability to control the Donbas is anything but certain.

With Lyman under Ukrainian control the battle for the Donbas will enter a new phase. The city’s recapture means that they have gained a new foothold in the region and are positioned to claw back territory before winter sets in.

The next target, if the Ukrainian military continues its advance, would likely be Svatove, a city north east of Lyman where Russians have retrenched following their defeat in the north east, according to analysts.

Russia’s military in the Donbas, depleted and losing ground, will be faced with a decision that involves shuttling resources from other parts of the front to slow Ukraine’s advance or continue to slowly lose chunks of the Donbas.

Some of the nearest Russian reinforcements are roughly 25 miles to the southeast, around the city of Bakhmut. Wagner group, an infamous paramilitary unit that reports directly to the Kremlin, has battered the Ukrainian defenders there but failed to seize any significant parts of the city.

Ukraine’s slow moving offensive in the south toward the port city of Kherson has largely been overshadowed by events in the east. But fighting there remains fierce as better trained Russian forces have put up staunch resistance against advancing Ukrainian troops.

New York Times, October 1, 2022