Next articles
War in Ukraine
Democracy Dies in Darkness

Russian troops withdraw from Lyman, a day after annexation claims

By
, 
, 
, 
and 
Updated October 1, 2022 at 12:37 p.m. EDT|Published October 1, 2022 at 6:06 a.m. EDT
Ukrainian soldiers take cover under a tank in June during intense bombardment near a road that leads to the eastern city of Lyman. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)
8 min

KYIV, Ukraine — The day after Russian President Vladimir Putin proudly proclaimed the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, thousands of his troops withdrew from a strategic town there under Ukrainian fire.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its troops withdrew from the town of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, as Ukrainian forces surrounded it. The retreat marks a major embarrassment for Moscow, a day after it claimed swaths of eastern Ukraine as its own — in the face of widespread international condemnation.