Russian forces have achieved substantial field success in eastern Ukraine, where they have resumed military operations in a number of towns and declared total control of Lyman, Ukraine’s second biggest city, which is associated with the Donetsk region in the Donbass area.

This comes after satellite photographs revealed a large-scale Russian military buildup of artillery and armored formations in Lyman.

In light of these escalating developments, Ukraine acknowledged that its forces may have to withdraw from the last pocket of resistance in Luhansk in order to avoid capture operations with the rapid advance of Russian forces in the east, which may facilitate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s goal of controlling Donetsk and Luhansk in the country’s east.