Ukraine says it had retaken more territory in the country’s east from Russian troops, giving Moscow even less control over the four regions it is attempting to annex.
On Sunday, Ukraine declared complete control of Lyman, a key strategic city in Donetsk.
“The story of the liberation of Lyman in the Donetsk region has now become the most popular in the media,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, according to Reuters. “But the successes of our soldiers are not limited to Lyman.”
Ukraine “liberated” the Kherson towns of Arkhanhelske and Myroliubivka, according to Zelenskyy.
On October 3, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his forces were annexing four regions — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk — and incorporating them into Russia. In reality, Russia does not fully control any of the regions, Reuters reported.
But Ukraine’s advances have become so evident that even Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who usually focuses on his military’s victories and the enemy’s defeats, has been forced to acknowledge them, the Associated Press reported.
“With numerically superior tank units in the direction of Zolota Balka and Oleksandrivka, the enemy managed to forge deep into our defenses,” Konashenkov said on Monday, mentioning the two towns in the Kherson region.
Ukraine had already retaken some of those regions and was fighting Russian troops and retaking territory even as Putin delivered his celebratory speech.
Russia has never completely conquered the Zaporizhzhia region, according to the AP.
Ukraine troops additionally consolidated gains in the east and other major battlefields, re-establishing Ukrainian control when it attempted to overcome staffing, weapons, troop morale, and logistics issues.
Meanwhile, Russians have begun to flee their country after Putin authorized a partial mobilization of reservists on Wednesday, The Dallas Express reported. According to The Hill, Russian officials may call up 300,000 reservists.
Following Putin’s speech, one-way flights from Moscow sold out, and satellite images showed long lines of cars at border crossings, according to The Dallas Express.
“The situation is absolutely crazy at the moment,” Yevgeny Bikov, jet broker YouCharter’s director, told the Guardian. He also stated that his ticket demand had increased from 50 to 5,000 per day.
Some Russian citizens have paid between $20,000 and $25,000 for seats on private planes to neighboring countries, according to The Dallas Express.
“All the European private jet firms have left the market. There is more demand than supply now, and the prices are through the roof compared with six months ago,” Eduard Simonov, CEO of the travel company FlightWay, told The Guardian.