Russia is trying to seize the town of Lyman in northern Donetsk Oblast to turn it into a base for a push toward the twin cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, Ukraine's Joint Forces spokesman Viktor Trehubov said on Ukrainian TV, according to Ukrinform. He described control of the town as a necessity for any Russian advance deeper into the region. For now, he said, Russian troops still cannot establish themselves inside it.
Why Russia needs Lyman
Trehubov said the Russians want to enter Lyman and dig in, aiming to hold the town and use it as a launchpad.
"The Russians want to enter Lyman and entrench," he said. "Their goal is precisely to take control directly over the settlement."
He stressed that it means "not just somewhere nearby, but over the settlement itself." Russia needs it to "use it as a base for further developing the offensive south toward the Sloviansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration. Even if you just look at the map, it becomes clear that for them this is a necessity."
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For months Russia has looked for routes that avoid Lyman, he said, including attempts to move through the village of Rai-Oleksandrivka. Without holding the town, he added, any Russian effort to enter Sloviansk would be extremely risky and awkward. So Moscow keeps trying to take it.
Trehubov told national television that Russian forces have pushed as far as Lyman's eastern edge but cannot secure a foothold there. Lyman sits across the Siverskyi Donets River northeast of the twin cities, the largest settlements still under Ukrainian control in the area.
Ukraine's drones start to tip the balance
Over the past year Ukraine's drone units have grown sharply, gradually shifting the front in Kyiv's favor, Trehubov said.
"The Russians still have some individual advantages, and there are moments where they have big problems, which they acknowledge, like heavy copters, for example, which they never managed to set up effectively," he said.
Moscow's failure to field working heavy drones stands out on this stretch of front.
"Overall the situation is evening out in Ukraine's favor thanks to both the quantitative and qualitative growth of Ukrainian drones and drone operators," Trehubov said, adding "There are more of them, they are used more effectively, and the organization of their interaction has become much better relative to the Russian one."
That shift in the drone math has been building for more than a year.
Over the past day, Ukraine's Defense Forces recorded 226 combat clashes with Russian troops, with the Kostiantynivka direction the most active.
