Russian forces are partly encircled in Ukraine’s Lyman, says a pro-Kremlin proxy leader

Ukrainian forces appeared to have made progress toward recapturing Lyman, a rail hub in the country’s east, with the head of Russia’s proxy adminration in the province saying Friday that the town was “half encircled.”
“This is very unpleasant news, but we must look soberly at the situation and draw conclusions from our makes,” said Denis Pushilin, leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic.

In another sign of Ukraine’s progress in the strategic town, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Telegram that Russian forces “will have to ask for an exit” from Lyman.
Control of the town is seen as a test of whether Ukraine can build on military gains made earlier in September, but the exact status of the battle was not immediately clear.
Donetsk province, where Russia holds significant territory, is one of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine that Russia is illegally annexing after staged referendums in recent days that Ukraine and Western governments have denounced as fraudulent. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed decrees to declare the four regions part of Russia.
Fighting for Lyman, which is in the northern part of Donetsk province, has intensified over the past few weeks after Ukraine made a series of gains during a rapid counteroffensive in Kharkiv province in the country’s northeast.
When Lyman fell to Russian forces in May, it presaged the capture weeks later of twin cities to the east of town. Those cities, Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, succumbed to Russian forces who had maximized their superior firepower in helping Moscow to seize control of Luhansk province, which together with neighboring Donetsk forms the Donbas.
If Ukraine were to recapture Lyman, it would not only increase the likelihood of regaining additional land in Luhansk and Donetsk but also put additional pressure on the Kremlin.
Pushilin said on Telegram that Russia had also lost control of Yampil and Dobryshev, villages north and east of Lyman.