Pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, admitted on Thursday that the situation around the city of Lyman is “complicated” and “tense” amid attempts by the Ukrainian armed forces to encircle Russian troops in the area from several directions.

“The situation in Liman remains quite tense and difficult, the Ukrainian armed forces are regularly trying to advance,” Oleksiy Nikonorov, a representative of the administration of the self-proclaimed DPR, said on Russian state television, EFE and Agerpres report.

These are not isolated attempts, he says, predicting that they will continue in the coming days.

According to him, Russian troops and pro-Russian militias “so far manage to repel all these attacks.”

Lyman is located northeast of the two main strongholds of the Ukrainian army in Donetsk region: Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and southeast of Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast, which Ukrainian forces liberated during a recent counteroffensive.

The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in an analysis published on Thursday that there is growing concern among Russian military bloggers who suggest that Russian forces may face imminent defeat in the area.

They and Russian military correspondents claim that Kyiv troops have advanced to the west, north and northeast of Liman.

They claim that the Ukrainian army is conducting operations to complete the encirclement of enemy forces in Liman and along the northern bank of the Siverskyi Donets River in the area.

“The collapse of the Limansky encirclement is likely to have significant consequences for the Russian group in the north of Donetsk Oblast and the west of Luhansk Oblast and may allow Ukrainian forces to threaten Russian positions along the western border of Luhansk Oblast and into Severodonetsk. “Raion Lysytsyanska” has been under Russian control since July, ISV reports.

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