Ukrainian forces made further gains Monday in the Kherson region in the country’s south, adding to their gains in the east in recent days as they push a counteroffensive against Russia.

Russia-installed officials in Kherson said Ukraine’s military had recaptured some settlements in Kherson.

The region is one of four that Russia illegally annexed last week.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that his forces in Kherson had liberated the settlements of Arkhanhelske and Myroliubivka.

The developments in Kherson followed Sunday’s announcement by Ukrainian forces that they had retaken full control of Lyman, the eastern logistics hub that is also within territory Russia claimed last week was its own.

“Lyman is fully cleared,” Zelenskyy declared in a short video clip on his Telegram channel.

Russia did not comment Sunday on the fate of Lyman but said Saturday that its troops were retreating from the area because it feared Ukrainian forces were about to encircle them. Russia captured Lyman in May and had used it as a logistics and transportation hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region.

Russia’s loss of Lyman was its biggest battlefield defeat since Ukrainian forces last month swept through the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, pushing Russian forces back toward their border.

In addition to claiming the annexations rejected by Ukraine and its western allies, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered late last month the mobilization of 300,000 reservists to bolster Russia’s forces.

The order sparked protests in some areas of Russia and long lines at borders as people fled.

The governor of Russia’s Khabarovsk region said Monday that the military commissar in the region was removed from his post after half of the personnel who were mobilized did not meet draft criteria and were sent home.

The governor said in a Telegram video that the commissar’s removal would not affect the overall mobilization plan.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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