Russian troops were forced to withdraw from the Donetsk city of Lyman one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin illegally annexed the region.
“In connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement, allied troops were withdrawn from the settlement of Krasny Liman to more advantageous lines,” the Russian defense ministry said on Saturday.
“Despite the losses incurred, having a significant superiority in forces and means, the enemy brought in reserves and continued the offensive in this direction,” the statement added.
Ukrainian officials had said they have troops surrounding the Russians in Lyman which served as a strategic city for Russia’s operations in the east.
According to CNN, Russian state media reported that Russian troops fled Lyman because “the enemy used both Western-made artillery and intelligence from North Atlantic alliance countries.”
The humiliating defeat for Vladimir Putin comes just one day after he signed “accession treaties” to annex Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. In the ceremony on Friday he claimed that the regions would be Russia’s “forever”.
Now, Putin allies are calling for him to use nuclear weapons following this latest defeat.
“I don’t know what the RF Ministry of Defense reports to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, but in my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of low-yield nuclear weapons. It is not necessary to take every decision with an eye on the Western American community – it has already said so and done a lot against us,” Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov wrote in Telegram post, according to Newsweek.
