Bittersweet victory in Lyman as battle has come at a significant cost to civilians

Published

3 years ago

October 5, 2022

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Success on the battlefield translates into a very different language for the residents of Lyman – and has come at a significant cost to the civilians.

The eastern Donetsk town is a husk of its former self, pummelled to bits with the heart ripped out of it and the few residents still there living beneath ground “like moles”, one told us.

“We don’t care who’s in control here,” one woman told us. “It could be the devil. We just want them to stop shooting.”

Maps posted four hours apart show how rapidly Putin’s troops are losing land – Ukraine latest

We saw the corpses of Russian soldiers strewn on the road into Lyman, their burnt-out and wrecked vehicles beside them.

Their bodies were bloated and their faces wax-yellow in colour, with personal bags spewing their contents all around them.

“Careful”, one of my colleagues cautioned to our team, “there are mines everywhere”.

Sure enough, hidden amongst the soldiers’ belongings and half-covered with leaves and dirt were several mines along the road.

The Russians had wanted to kill as they beat a retreat in the face of the Ukrainian army.

The recapture of Lyman is a significant victory because it was used by the Russians as a key transport hub – the railway lines used to take supplies and ammunition to their units in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions which make up the Donbas.

The severing of this vital supply link is likely to impact not only the Russians’ ability to maintain defences on the eastern front but potentially their plans to move forward. At least, that appears to be the Ukrainian intention.

The recapture has certainly placed them in a good military position on the eastern front and the soldiers are clearly buoyed by these successes.

“In Mariupol, the battle was the biggest,” Roman tells us in halting but clear English.

But here, in Lyman? I ask.

“Here the Russians go away,” he replies, smiling.

“Here they do a little shoot and go away.” There’s another telling smile from him.

This has been no Mariupol.

Lyman was significantly empty of much Ukrainian military whilst we were in the town, days after it had been seized by the Ukrainians.

This seemed to indicate they’d secured it and already moved forward to try to recapture more villages and towns inside the Donbas.

Lyman is only about 10 miles from the border of neighbouring Luhansk and several soldiers we’ve spoken to are already confidently predicting the reclaiming of further substantial territory there.

But for those left in the wake of these military manoeuvres, the fight to survive has become no less harsh.

We found men trying to cut down trees in the grounds of the hospital. They were gathering wood to burn. The town has had no electricity for months and winter is fast approaching.

The hospital building had been holed in several places. We could see stretchers and medical paraphernalia including babies’ cots through the broken windows.

It’s difficult to work out, given that the Russians were holding Lyman for many months, who mounted the attack on the medical facility.

Was it done in the initial capture of the town or during the shelling to try to dislodge the Russian troops?

That will surely form part of an investigation into just what happened here, given attacking a hospital is against international law and a potential war crime.

There are anxious glances from the men cutting wood as an army fuel truck rumbles by. They can see the Russian ‘Z’ symbol – but it’s been painted over with a less distinct Ukrainian cross.

“War over land,” one of them men mutters to us, “but we’ve got nothing to heat our houses… no electricity… nothing.”

The men – like many here – don’t want to be filmed.

“You ask us about referendums,” one woman remonstrates. “We don’t want to talk politics. We want to stop living in shelters. Even dogs have better lives than us right now.”

Natalia takes us down the stairs into a cold, dark concrete shelter where they’ve piled up stocks of wood to do underground cooking and to try to keep warm during the winter.

They don’t seem to believe life is likely to change much for them in the immediate future.

The town might have been recaptured but there’s a deep reluctance to take any chances and a great sense of doubt over whether the fighting is truly over here.

“There are no jobs, no pensions, nothing… no salaries,” Natalia says to us.

“We have nothing… our children have no salaries and no jobs… can you call this a life?” Her voice cracks and she sobs. “I can’t do this any more,” she says.

Lyman’s police station still has its signage in Russian but there’s a pot of paint and paintbrushes near the gate which show it’s been freshly remodelled with the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag.

A policeman shows us the picture of the Russian flag which was on the same gate just a few days earlier. Flags and allegiances are all-important here.

Another policeman from Lyman arrives at the group of civilians we’re with – to let them know he’s back in town and will work on trying to reconnect the badly-needed utilities.

“We just need electricity,” several residents say to him, talking over each other at this rare sight of someone in authority.

“It’s just our second day here,” the policeman, Dmytro, tells them. “We can’t fix everything at once.”

But he reassures them: “We know you need it. We are trying.”

Seventy-five-year-old Zina stops cycling to talk to us. Like so many here, she’s endured a lot but with nowhere to go, there’s been little option for her.

“Who wants this war?” she says. “No one wants it… everyone is leaving, everyone has run away… the city is empty.”

And it’s not just Lyman. The surrounding villages and communities around the city have been battered almost beyond recognition.

The roads around the Kharkiv region – where the Ukrainians executed a lightning rout of Russian troops, allowing them to grab back Izyum and move onto Lyman – are littered with rusting carcasses of military vehicles.

The surrounding communities are also mostly empty and much of them, piles of rubble. Victory is bittersweet in Ukraine.

Alex Crawford reports with cameraman Jake Britton and producers Chris Cunningham and Artem Lysak.

World

Ship carrying aid for Gaza bombed by drones, as NGO points finger at Israel

Published

3 hours ago

May 2, 2025

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Ship carrying aid for Gaza bombed by drones, as NGO points finger at Israel

A ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza has been bombed by drones while it was in international waters.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, the NGO responsible for the ship, has pointed the finger at Israel.

Video shows fire raging onboard the vessel, which put out an SOS distress call after it was attacked off the coast of Malta.

It comes as the case against Israel at the International Court of Justice continued this week.

Gaza remains under blockade, with Israel having now refused to allow international aid into the devastated enclave for almost two months despite global outcry.

Following the drone attack, the Maltese government confirmed that after several hours all crew were safe and the fire was under control.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition said: “Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade (of Gaza) and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”

It asserted that the drone attack “appears to have specifically targeted the ship’s generator” and had left the vessel at risk of sinking.

Describing the attack, it said: “Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull.

“The last communication in the early morning of the 2nd of May, indicated the drones are still circling the ship.”

It released video footage shot in the dark that showed lights in the sky in front of the ship and the sound of explosions. The footage also showed the vessel on fire.

The Israeli foreign ministry has not commented on what happened.

Yesterday, UN aid coordinator Tom Fletcher called on Israel to lift the blockade on Gaza, which has been in force for almost two months.

“Yes, the hostages must be released, now. They should never have been taken from their families,” he said.

“But international law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in.”

Aid should never be a “bargaining chip”, he added.

‘Children going to bed starving’

Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA said: “The siege on Gaza is the silent killer of children, of older people.

“Families – whole families, seven or eight people – are resorting to sharing one can of beans or peas. Imagine not having anything to feed your children. Children in Gaza are going to bed starving.”

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Germany’s far-right AfD party officially classified as ‘extremist’ organisation

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6 hours ago

May 2, 2025

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Germany's far-right AfD party officially classified as 'extremist' organisation

Germany’s spy agency has officially classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an “extremist” organisation.

The party has been growing in popularity and came second in February’s general election.

The country’s domestic intelligence agency said on Friday that it was an extremist entity which threatens democracy.

Its 1,000-page internal report claimed views around ethnicity held by the AfD aim to exclude certain groups from equal participation in society.

“The party’s prevailing understanding of the people based on ethnicity and descent is incompatible with the free democratic basic order,” the agency said in a statement.

“Specifically, the AfD considers, for example, German citizens with a migration background from predominantly Muslim countries not equal members of the ethnically defined German people.”

AfD’s co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla described the decision as a “serious blow to German democracy”.

In a joint statement on Friday, they said: “The AfD is now being publicly discredited and criminalised as an opposition party shortly before the change of government.

“The associated, targeted interference in the democratic decision-making process is therefore clearly politically motivated. The AfD will continue to defend itself legally against this defamation that jeopardises democracy.”

The party leaders have consistently denied the party is either far right or extremist.

Local branches of the party in the east German states of Thuringia, Saxony, and Saxony-Anhalt had already been classified as extremist by regional spy chiefs.

The entire party was also previously designated “suspected” far-right extremist.

However, the announcement allows intelligence agencies to increase surveillance on the group.

It may also embolden opponents to try to get the party banned.

The decision was welcomed by the country’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, who said in a statement that the new assessment was “clear and unequivocal”, adding that the party “discriminates against entire segments of the population and treats citizens with a migration background as second-class Germans”.

She underlined that “there has been no political influence on the findings” but said the new classification was likely to be subject to judicial review.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that although the intelligence agency has provided a “very detailed justification” for the decision, “ban proceedings must not be rushed”.

Anton Baron, a regional politician in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, described the decision as “politically questionable”.

While the ruling is a blow for the party, it is unlikely to influence hardcore supporters, many of whom live in states where the party was already designated extremist at a local level.

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Wildfire in Israel burns 5,000 acres as drivers forced to flee cars

Published

15 hours ago

May 2, 2025

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Wildfire in Israel burns 5,000 acres as drivers forced to flee cars

Emergency crews in Israel are battling a wildfire that sent smoke drifting over Jerusalem and forced drivers to run from their cars.

About 5,000 acres (20 square kilometres) have been scorched since the blaze started in the hills outside the city on Wednesday.

The ambulance service said at least 12 people had been treated in hospital, mainly for smoke inhalation, but the fire service said “miraculously” no homes had been damaged.

Ten firefighting planes were dropping fire retardant material on Thursday and authorities said eight more were due to arrive.

Spain, Italy, France, Croatia, Ukraine and Romania are among those sending aircraft.

People celebrating Israel‘s independence day on Thursday were advised to be exceptionally careful if holding barbecues and told to avoid forests and parks.

Most official celebrations were cancelled as security forces were diverted to the fire effort.

The blaze is the most significant the country has seen in the past decade, according to Tal Volvovitch, from the fire and rescue authority.

However, an evacuation order for about 12 towns near Jerusalem has been lifted and the main highway linking Jerusalem to Tel Aviv also reopened on Thursday.

A day earlier, drivers had to abandoned their vehicles when flames encroached on the road.

Firefighting is continuing but the blaze has now been mostly contained, said the Jewish National Fund, which manages forests in the country.

It said conditions had been perfect for fires to spread – hot and dry, little rain over winter, and strong, shifting winds.

“Of course when there’s a series of drought years, it’s a fertile ground for fires,” said the fund’s Anat Gold, adding that climate change was the likely cause.