U.S. cheers Ukraine’s “important” battlefield success at Lyman By Reuters

By Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday cheered Ukraine’s seize of the important thing bastion of Lyman from Russia in jap Ukraine, saying it was an encouraging battlefield success that will create new dilemmas for Russia’s army.

“Completely, it is important. We’re very inspired by what we’re seeing proper now,” Austin informed reporters at a information convention in Hawaii.

Russia had used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations within the north of the Donetsk area. Its seize is Ukraine’s greatest battlefield achieve since a lightning counteroffensive within the northeastern Kharkiv area final month.

Austin famous that Lyman was positioned throughout provide strains that Russia has used to push its troops and materiel all the way down to the south and to the west, because the Kremlin presses its greater than seven-month-long invasion of Ukraine.

“And with out these routes, will probably be harder. So it presents a kind of a dilemma for the Russians going ahead,” Austin stated.

“And we expect the Ukrainians have achieved nice work to get there and to start to occupy town.”

Ukraine’s latest successes have infuriated Putin allies comparable to Ramzan Kadyrov, the chief of Russia’s southern Chechnya area, who known as for “extra drastic measures” – to incorporate the usage of low-yield nuclear weapons.

The seize got here only a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of 4 Ukrainian areas – together with Donetsk, the place Lyman is positioned – and positioned them beneath Russia’s nuclear umbrella. The proclamation of Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine was roundly rejected by Ukraine and Western nations as unlawful.

Austin didn’t say whether or not he thought Ukraine’s seize of Lyman may immediate Russian escalation, though U.S. officers have broadly denounced Russia’s nuclear rhetoric in latest days.

“What it means when it comes to potential escalation, I will not speculate on that. However what it does imply for the battlefield is that the Ukrainians proceed to make progress,” Austin stated.

“They proceed to current issues to the Russians that they’re going to must resolve. And once more, all of us must be inspired by what we’re seeing.”