Kyiv, Ukraine—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the eastern town of Lyman had been cleared of Russian forces and that Ukrainian flags were flying again, scoring a symbolic military and political victory against Moscow on the same territory as President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia would annex. .
Russia’s defense ministry said it was withdrawing troops from the city after days of advances by Ukrainian forces to encircle it, but Moscow kept several thousand troops there, likely encircled until the fighting ended.