Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted Saturday that European nations halt sanctions on his country and weapons shipments to Ukraine, where Moscow claimed its forces had captured another eastern city as they fought to seize all of the contested Donbas region.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the city of Lyman had been "completely liberated” by a joint force of Russian soldiers and the Kremlin-backed separatists, who have waged war for eight years in the industrial region bordering Russia.
Lyman, which had a population of about 20,000 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, serves as a regional railway hub. Ukraine’s train system has ferried arms and evacuated citizens during the war, and controlling the small city would give Russian troops another foothold from which to advance on larger Ukrainian-held areas.
The Kremlin said Putin held a three-way telephone call with the leaders of France and Germany in which he warned against the continued transfers of Western weapons to Ukraine and blamed the conflict's disruption to global food supplies on Western sanctions.
During the 80-minute call, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron urged an immediate cease-fire and a withdrawal of Russian troops, according to the chancellor's spokesperson. Both urged Putin to engage in serious direct negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end the fighting, the spokesperson said.
A Kremlin readout of the call said the Russian leader affirmed "the openness of the Russian side to the resumption of dialogue.” The three leaders agreed to stay in contact, according to the readout.
But Russia's recent progress in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the Donbas, could embolden Putin to keep pursuing his military goals in Ukraine. After failing to occupy Kyiv, the capital, Russia set out to seize the last parts of the region not controlled by the separatists.
"If Russia did succeed in taking over these areas, it would highly likely be seen by the Kremlin as a substantive political achievement and be portrayed to the Russian people as justifying the invasion,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a Saturday assessment.
On Tuesday, Russian troops also took over Svitlodarsk, a small municipality that hosts a thermal power station, while intensifying efforts to encircle and capture the larger city of Sievierodonetsk.
Fighting continued Saturday around Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province. Zelenskyy called the situation in the east was "difficult” but expressed confidence his country would prevail with help from Western weapons and sanctions.
"If the occupiers think that Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian,” he said.
The governor of Luhansk had warned that Ukrainian soldiers might have to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to avoid being surrounded but reported Saturday that they had repelled an attack.
