Zelensky on Russian retreat from Lyman

In his evening address on October 1, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky commented on Russian troops’ departure from Lyman in the Donetsk region – a region which Moscow tried to annex a day earlier as the result of its “referendums on joining Russia.”

Look, Russia built a farce in the Donbas. An absolute farce, which they wanted to count as a referendum. They set up something, brought men with machine guns around to homes, carried around pieces of paper, propagandists filmed it all in the part of the Donbas they controlled.

And now there’s a Ukrainian flag there. This week, more Ukrainian flags appeared in the Donbas. In another week, there will be still more. [...] There’s already a Ukrainian banner in Lyman, in Donetsk. And military action is still ongoing there. But there is no longer a trace of any pseudo-referendum.

Zelensky also discussed attempts within the Russian elite to assign blame for the retreat from Lyman.

They’ve started to bite each other: seeking out the guilty, blaming some general or other for the failure… This is the first bell toll, and every level of the Russian authorities should listen to it.

Until you solve the problem of the one who started all this, who started this senseless war against Ukraine, you will be taken out one by one, and made scapegoats, so that he doesn’t have to admit that this war is a historical mistake for Russia.

Follow Meduza in English on Twitter to stay up to date.

• On October 1, it was confirmed that Ukrainian troops had entered Lyman in the Donetsk region. This happened one day after Vladimir Putin signed treaties intended to annex the Ukrainian regions occupied by Russia. After taking Lyman, the Ukrainian army could make its goal the territory of Luhansk, which was seized by Russian in the spring and summer of 2022.