Ukrainian advance at Lyman gives hope of prisoner exchange

People are starving in Oleshky, the last steel mills in the east are forced to close due to missile attacks, and in the capital, Kiev, smoke rises over the city center after another day of intense attacks by drones and robots. The last few days have been dark for Ukraine, civilians have been killed in several places around the country.

Perhaps the developments on the north-eastern front will only marginally affect the balance of forces in the war, but Ukraine's advance around Lyman in Donetsk gives some hope to the country's inhabitants - not least to all those with relatives who have been captured at the front.

New images from "Operation Vivaldi", which are said to show a large number of Russian soldiers captured in connection with a Ukrainian offensive, were published by Ukraine's Third Brigade Corps this week. The brigade claims that around 250 Russians have laid down their arms and surrendered, information that cannot be confirmed.

How many soldiers are held captive in each country is unknown, but it is about thousands and Russia has the most. A large number of the Ukrainian detainees have been in captivity since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, and several who have been allowed to return have testified to torture-like conditions.

The Ukrainian negotiators prioritize bringing home those who have been in captivity the longest and the recent success of "Operation Vivaldi" means that some of these will soon be released.

In the advance, Ukraine reportedly used remote-controlled all-terrain vehicles equipped with explosive charges to attack some of the most inaccessible Russian fortifications in the area. There they are said to have struck launch sites for drones where the Russian elite unit "Rubicon" operated, according to the brigade.

Brigadier General Andriy Biletskyi also claims that Ukraine has regained control of more than 50 square kilometers recently, and a total of 176 square kilometers during the operation that has been ongoing since the beginning of the summer. In the fighting, 5,000 Russian soldiers are said to have been killed or seriously wounded.

That Ukraine advanced in some places, not far from the county border with Luhansk, which the country's forces were forced to abandon last spring, has been verified by the Washington-based think tank ISW. Should Ukraine succeed in regaining areas there, it would be a great symbolic success - and would mean that not a single oblast in Donbass would be under full Russian occupation anymore.