Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, said that the retaking of Lyman in the neighbouring Donetsk region is one of the key factors for reclaiming lost territory in Luhansk.

“The liberation of this city in the Donetsk region is one of the key factors for the further de-occupation of the Luhansk region,” Gaidai wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Luhansk and Donetsk provinces comprise Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where heavy fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces has been going on for months.