Zelensky Says Russian Retreat Shows Annexation Is A Farce
Zelensky Says Russian Retreat Shows Annexation Is A ‘Farce’ https://digitalarizonanews.com/zelensky-says-russian-retreat-shows-annexation-is-a-farce/
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A photo provided by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service of President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday in Kyiv.Credit…Ukrainian Presidential Press Service, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine quickly sought to capitalize politically on the Russian retreat from the crucial rail hub of Lyman, saying that it showed that Moscow’s attempt to illegally annex much of the country was an “absolute farce.”
On Friday, after Russian-appointed officials held discredited referendums in four partially occupied areas of Ukraine, the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, announced that the areas, including Donetsk Province, where Lyman is, would be absorbed into Russia and that its people would be Russian citizens “forever.”
Mr. Putin claimed the residents in those provinces had voted overwhelmingly to join the Russian Federation, but Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed the referendums as shams, as most of the citizens had fled the region and many of those left behind were forced to cast ballots at gunpoint.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Moscow’s propagandists had filmed a “pseudo-referendum” in Donbas — the mineral-rich region that includes Donetsk and Luhansk, and that Russia now claims to control.
“Russia has staged a farce in Donbas. An absolute farce, which it wanted to present as an alleged referendum,” he said, adding that “now a Ukrainian flag is there.”
He then vowed that there would be more Ukrainian flags flying over the Donbas during the coming week as Kyiv’s counteroffensive inches forward.
“Our flag will be everywhere,” he said.
There was no public comment on Saturday from Mr. Putin or his spokesman about the Russian army’s retreat, even as pro-war commentators and two of Mr. Putin’s closest allies sharply criticized the Defense Ministry for retreating from the city.
The spokesman for the Defense Ministry, Igor Konashenkov, told the Russian state news agency Tass that the troops in Lyman had made a tactical retreat to avoid being encircled and trapped. He said the Ukrainian forces had “significant superiority” in numbers and the Russians had withdrawn “to more advantageous lines.”
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A Ukrainian military truck near Lyman, Ukraine, on Tuesday.Credit…Nicole Tung for The New York Times
Russia’s retreat from Lyman on Saturday leaves its troops in the country’s east in an increasingly perilous position.
The battle for the town was a continuation of Ukraine’s northeastern offensive in September, which routed Russian forces from cities, towns and dozens of villages and recaptured more than a thousand square miles of territory in the Kharkiv region. The lightning victory there severed most supply lines to Lyman, where Russian forces relied on a north-south rail line that is now mostly under Ukrainian control.
With a prewar population of around 20,000 people, Lyman sits on the northeastern banks of the Siversky Donets, a meandering river that has served as a natural division between Russian and Ukrainian front lines since Russian forces captured the city in May.
Now that Ukrainian forces have retaken the city, they will have a solid foothold on the northeastern side of the river that they can use to advance farther east, applying pressure on the Russian front lines that formed following their recent defeats around Kharkiv.
The battle for Lyman was hard fought. In recent days and weeks Ukrainian forces closed in from the south and west. With bridges across the Siversky Donets under frequent shelling, Ukraine relied on boats to move troops and casualties to and away from the front. Dense forest near Lyman proved a confusing nightmare for both sides.
Initially, recapturing the city was thought to be easy, according to Ukrainian commanders, but as days turned to weeks, Russian forces reinforced Lyman with troops that had fled from Kharkiv and elsewhere in Ukraine’s east, known as the Donbas.
On Saturday, Russian authorities said its forces had retreated to a more advantageous position, effectively surrendering the town.
Seizing the mineral-rich Donbas region for Russia has been one of President Vladimir V. Putin’s primary war aims since his forces invaded Ukraine in February.
On Friday, he announced the official annexation of four regions in Ukraine — including the entirety of the Donbas and the two Kremlin-backed breakaway republics there that were formed in 2014. Mr. Putin has claimed that any attack on the annexed territory would amount to an attack on Russia, and he has threatened to escalate the war further, potentially with nuclear weapons.
Natalia Yermak contributed reporting.
The State of the War
Annexation Push: After Moscow’s proxies conducted a series of sham referendums in the Ukrainian regions of Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Luhansk and Donetsk, President Vladimir V. Putin declared the four territories to be part of Russia. Western leaders, including President Biden in the United States, denounced the annexation as illegal.
Retreat From Key City: Russian forces withdrew from the strategically important city of Lyman, in Donetsk Province, on Oct. 1. The retreat was a significant setback for Moscow, coming just a day after Mr. Putin declared the region to be Russian territory.
U.S. Military Aid: The Pentagon seems to be preparing to overhaul how the United States and its allies train and equip the Ukrainian military, reflecting what officials say is the Biden administration’s long-term commitment to supporting Ukraine in the war.
Russia’s Draft: The Kremlin has acknowledged that its new military draft is rife with problems, as protests have erupted across Russia, recruitment centers have been attacked and thousands of men have left the country.
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The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in August. The plant was taken by Russian forces in March but is run by Ukrainian engineers.Credit…David Guttenfelder for The New York Times
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear agency called on Saturday for the release of the director general of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, who has been detained by Russia, saying that his detention has “a very significant impact” on the safety of the Russian-controlled facility.
The director general, Ihor Murashov, is responsible for nuclear and radiation safety, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian national energy company. At around 4 p.m. Friday, a car carrying Mr. Murashov was stopped on the road leading to the plant, and he was blindfolded and taken to an unknown location, the company said.
The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael M. Grossi, said in a statement on Saturday that Mr. Murashov’s detention “has an immediate and serious impact on decision-making in ensuring the safety and security of the plant.”
The sudden arrest also put a psychological strain on the rest of the plant’s staff, he added.
The nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, was seized by Russian forces in March but is run by Ukrainian engineers. Fighting nearby has raised international concern about an accident. Shelling has at times caused the plant to be disconnected from Ukraine’s power grid, which Ukraine’s energy minister has said put critical cooling systems at risk of relying solely on emergency backup power.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called in a statement for Russia to immediately release Mr. Murashov and urged the U.N. nuclear agency to take “decisive measures.”
The I.A.E.A. has had two inspectors at the plant since September. It said in a statement on Friday that there had been a series of land mine explosions near the plant in recent days that was jeopardizing safety and security at the facility.
The latest blast, the sixth reported in a week, damaged a low-voltage cable outside the fence perimeter, according to the agency. The explosion was close to a nitrogen-oxygen facility and indirectly damaged a voltage transformer at one of the reactors, the statement said. Earlier in the week, the agency said that the land mines appeared to have been set off by animals.
Ukrainian and Russian military forces have accused each other of using the specter of nuclear disaster in brinkmanship in the war by making attacks near the plant. Mr. Grossi has repeatedly urged the establishment of a security zone in the area.
The plant is in the Zaporizhzhia region, part of the slice of eastern and southern Ukraine that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia moved to illegally annex on Friday.
Ukrainian officials have noted the fatigue and stress of Ukrainian control room employees, saying that Russian soldiers had subjected them to harsh interrogations, including torture with electric shocks, suspecting them of sabotage or of informing the Ukrainian military about activities at the plant.
— Erin Mendell
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President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia displayed on Friday on a screen in Moscow as he addressed the sham annexation of four regions of Ukraine.Credit…Alexander Nemenov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
WASHINGTON — For the first time since the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, top Russian officials are making explicit nuclear threats and officials in Washington are gaming out scenarios should President Vladimir V. Putin decide to use a tactical nuclear weapon to make up for the failings of Russian troops in Ukraine.
In a speech on Friday, Mr. Putin raised the prospect anew, declaring again that he would use “all available means” to defend Russian territory — which he has now declared includes four provinces of eastern Ukraine.
Mr. Putin reminded the world of President Harry S. Truman’s decision to drop atomic weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 77 years ago, adding: “By the way, they created a precedent.”
Senior American officials say they think the chances that Mr. Putin would employ a nuclear weapon remain low. They s...