Don't Believe Russian Lies. Lyman Still Holds.

A few flag-raising infiltrators create the impression of Russian advances.

Russian flags in Lyman

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

Don’t believe Russian propaganda. There’s no reason to believe Russian forces are about to capture the city of Lyman, which anchors Ukrainian defenses 15 km north of Sloviansk, one of the last two big free cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.

The Russians are trying to march on Sloviansk and neighboring Kramatorsk from two directions: the north and the south. To approach from the north, they have to get around or through Lyman. To approach from the south, they must travel 20 km along a mined, drone-patrolled road threading from the ruins of Kostiantynivka toward Kramatorsk.

The Russians have enjoyed some recent success in the south. After a long aerial bombardment and ground siege, they recently infiltrated Kostiantynivka, forcing the city’s garrison to pull back in order to avoid encirclement.

But the Russians are no closer to capturing Lyman, despite months of effort. They’ve been trying to bypass the city to the north, but Ukrainian counterattacks keep blunting and rolling back their advances. Small teams of Russian infantry have fared no better while trying to infiltrate Lyman. They’ve only succeeded in creating the impression of progress.

Don’t buy the impression. Russian infiltrators sneaking into Lyman from a small Russian foothold in the city’s eastern outskirts haven’t yet succeeded in dislodging Ukrainian troops in most of Lyman. Reports of new Russian lodgements, and Ukrainian counterattacks aimed at clearing out those lodgements, are inaccurate.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.