Ukraine Advance Near Key Donbas Town Tests Putin’s Land Grab

  • Lyman ‘pocket’ in danger of encirclement by Ukrainian troops
  • Stop being afraid of Russians, says Ukraine’s defense minister
An abandoned tank in Kramatorsk, 42km south of Lyman, Ukraine, on Sept. 29.Photographer: Juan Barreto/AFP/Getty Images
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Russian President Vladimir Putin may not have long to wait for the first major test of his decision to annex a swathe of Ukraine, with Kyiv’s forces threatening to encircle a pocket of the Donbas region he set out to conquer.

The Kremlin said Putin will on Friday sign what it called treaties with the Moscow-anointed leaders of four partially occupied provinces in Ukraine’s east. Ratification of their absorption into Russia would soon follow.