Russia attacked the Ukrainian president's hometown and other targets with suicide drones on Sunday, and Ukraine took back full control of a strategic eastern city in a counteroffensive that has reshaped the war.
Russia's loss of Lyman, which it had been using as a transport and logistics hub, is a new blow to the Kremlin as it seeks to escalate the war by illegally annexing four regions of Ukraine and heightening its threats to use nuclear force. Ukraine's recent gains have embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin and prompted rare domestic criticism.
Russia in recent weeks has begun using Iranian-made suicide drones to attack targets in Ukraine. In southern Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said Sunday it shot down five Iranian-made drones overnight, while two others made it through air defences. Lyman had been an important link in the Russian front line for ground communications and logistics. Lyman is in the Donetsk region near the border with Luhansk, two of the four regions that Russia illegally annexed Friday after forcing the population to vote in referendums at gunpoint.
In a daily intelligence briefing, the British Defence Ministry called Lyman crucial because it has "a key road crossing over the Siversky Donets River, behind which Russia has been attempting to consolidate its defences." The Russian retreat from northeast Ukraine in recent weeks has revealed evidence of widespread, routine torture of both civilians and soldiers, notably in the strategic city of Izium, an Associated Press investigation has found.
Pope Francis on Sunday decried the nuclear threats, and appealed to Putin to stop "this spiral of violence and death."
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