Zelensky hails 'significant results' of counteroffensive in east Ukraine

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday hailed the successes of Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the east, as Kyiv’s forces appear to be edging closer to retaking the key town of Lyman, which Moscow captured in the spring.

“We have significant results in the east of our country. There is already enough public information about this. Everyone has heard what is happening in Lyman, Donetsk region. These steps mean a lot to us,” Zelensky said in his daily address to the nation.

His remarks come after Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday formally annexed four Moscow-held regions of Ukraine — including Donetsk — in a lavish ceremony in the Kremlin, following hastily organised referendums condemned by the West.

“We must liberate our entire land and this will be the best proof that international law and human values cannot be broken by any terrorist state, even one as insolent as Russia,” Zelensky said.

He said that Ukraine’s path is “difficult”, but it is one of “independence, territorial integrity, integration with the civilised world and social development”.

“The path of our enemy is also completely clear — defeat, shame and condemnation,” Zelensky said.

The Kremlin-backed leader of Donetsk said Friday that Russian troops and their allies were holding on to Lyman with “their last strength” and that Moscow’s forces in the town were “partially surrounded”.