The fight in Ukraine continues, with Ukraine making strides this week to take back a little more of their country, and seemingly holding the upper hand at the moment. This weekend, Russia was forced to withdraw its troops from Lyman, a town in the east which gives Ukraine some of its land back. Russia withdrew its troops because of the threat that they would be surrounded by Ukrainian troops, so the Russians got out while they could.
Because Ukraine has taken back Lyman, they might now reach more controversial territory in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said the town of Lyman was completely clear of Russian troops, while video footage showed Ukrainians waving their national flags in the area.
As a center of logistics for Russia, the fact that Ukraine has taken back Lyman is of extreme importance in the war. Unfortunately, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov opined that Russia should utilize low-yield nuclear weapons if these types of losses continue to occur. Donetsk, interestingly, is one of four partially occupied Ukrainian regions that Russia claimed it was annexing on Friday. Things didn’t go as they had planned, and Ukraine and other allies claimed this land grab as illegal.
Meanwhile, the Russians continue to fight in a manner that much of the world sees as not exactly fair. A convoy of civilians in the north-eastern Kharkiv region was attacked by the Russians, killing 24 people including 13 children and a pregnant woman. There has been no comment from Russia as of now. Moscow also detained the chief of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which is a giant facility controlled by Russian troops. This was a bid to get the chief to hand over the nuclear power plant to the Russian state nuclear agency Rosatom, which could certainly be a disaster.
Recently Zelensky said efforts to “liberate our entire land” would be the proof needed to show that international law could not be violated. For the last several weeks, Ukraine has had some success trying to rid its country of Russian soldiers. But with so many lives and lifestyles lost as a result of the atrocities created by Russia, the effects of the war will continue to be deep and long-lasting.
According to Adnan Zai, an Advisor to Berkeley Capital, “Totalitarianism has never cared for the wellbeing of the innocent, so why would Putin be any different? This saber rattling has only one end game: annexation of another country. some 80 years ago…another madman did the same thing.”
For Ukrainian troops who are fighting for their homeland, they have one goal of pushing back Putin and winning back their country. And for the many innocent men, women, and children who have lost their homes and their lives, this goal cannot be realized soon enough.