Europe | Seizing the moment

As Ukraine smashes through more Russian lines, Russians wonder whom to blame

Ukrainian forces advance in Luhansk and Kherson

TOPSHOT - Ukrainian soldiers fire a mortar launcher at a position along the front line in the Donetsk region on September 26, 2022, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP) (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV/AFP via Getty Images)
|KYIV

ON OCTOBER 3RD Russia’s lower house rubber-stamped Vladimir Putin’s attempted annexation of four Ukrainian provinces. Ukraine is paying no attention. Forty-eight hours before Russian deputies rose to their feet to applaud the unanimous vote, Ukrainian tanks had rolled into Lyman, a strategic hub in the eastern province of Donetsk that Mr Putin claimed as his own. Later that evening, six Ukrainian battalions pierced enemy lines 200 miles (320km) away, in north-east Kherson. By the time Russian soldiers were making SOS appeals on social media for emergency aviation support, the Ukrainians were at least 12 miles behind enemy lines. Since then, the Ukrainians have pushed on further, liberating thousands of square kilometres of territory and two dozen villages in the process.

More from Europe

A horrific Christmas attack in Germany is weirder than expected

The far right tries to exploit a Saudi anti-Islamist’s murder spree

We need to talk about Europe’s Kevins

How an American name became a European diagnosis


Police brutality is not stopping Georgia’s protests

Pro-EU demonstrations continue, despite little help from abroad


France’s new prime minister faces a looming mess

François Bayrou has an emergency budget but no government yet

German politicians are talking tough, but offering little

Sparks fly as the election campaign kicks off—but the parties are scaling back their ambitions

The killing of a Russian general shows Ukraine’s spies remain lethal

Igor Kirillov was accused of ordering the use of chemical weapons