“The defeat around Lyman also indicates that Russian President Vladimir Putin – who has reportedly been micromanaging Russian commanders on the ground – is deprioritizing defending Luhansk Oblast in favor of holding occupied territories in southern Ukraine,” says the report of the Institute for the Study of War released on October 1.
Ukrainian and Russian sources consistently indicate that Russian forces continued to reinforce Russian positions in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, despite the recent collapse of the Kharkiv-Izium front and even as the Russian positions around Lyman collapsed. The decision not to reinforce vulnerable Kupiansk or Lyman front lines was almost certainly Putin’s, not that of the military command, and suggests that Putin cares far more about holding the strategic terrain of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts than he does about Luhansk Oblast, ISW explained.
