• Russia’s retreat complicates its annexation of four Ukrainian areas, including Lyman.
• It’s in the Donetsk region on the border with Luhansk.
• President Biden signed $12.3 billion in military, and economic aid to Ukraine.

Russia pulled troops out of an eastern Ukrainian city it was using as a front-line hub after being trapped by Ukrainian forces. The Kremlin felt humiliated and infuriated by the Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Russia’s retreat from Lyman complicates its internationally reviled annexation of four Ukrainian areas, including Lyman. Taking the city allows Ukrainian soldiers to press into land Moscow illegally claims as its own.

The fighting is a turning point in Putin’s war. Facing Ukrainian battlefield successes, which he views as a U.S.-orchestrated campaign to destroy Russia, Putin this week stepped up his nuclear threats and anti-Western rhetoric.

Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have damaged Ukrainian soldiers in Lyman but acknowledged that outnumbered Russian troops retreated to better positions. The Ukrainian president’s head of staff shared photographs of a Ukrainian flag being hoisted in Lyman.

Lyman was a Russian frontline communications and logistics connection. It’s in the Donetsk region on the border with Luhansk, both of which Russia annexed Friday after a gunpoint “referendum.”

In a September counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces retook large areas. They drove Russian forces from Kharkiv and crossed the Oskil River.

Russian officials criticized Moscow’s pullout from Lyman.

Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Chechnya, blamed the retreat on a general being “covered up for by General Staff leaders.” He demanded “bolder action.”

Sevastopol’s governor issued an emergency at an airstrip in Russian-annexed Crimea. Beachgoers in the Russian-held resort saw explosions and smoke. Authorities say a plane skidded off the runway at Belbek airstrip and exploded.

In 2014, Russia illegally grabbed Ukraine’s Black Sea peninsula Crimea.

Moscow moved quickly with its latest annexation and ordered a major mobilization at home to bolster its forces, intensifying Russian bombardments. Tens of thousands of Russian men have fled the country because of the draught.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his forces have threatened to liberate the districts Putin claimed to have annexed Friday and other Russian-occupied areas.

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Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of striking two aid convoys, killing scores of civilians.

Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv area, stated that 24 civilians were murdered in a strike on a truck fleeing the Kupiansk district. “Unjustifiable cruelty,” he said. Thirteen children and a pregnant woman were killed.

“The Russians fired at civilians almost at point-blank range,” Syniehubov wrote.

The SBU tweeted photos of the attacked convoy. One vehicle looked to have exploded, with burnt bodies in its bed. A front-of-convoy car was also on fire. Bodies lay on the roadside or inside bullet-riddled automobiles.

Russia’s Defense Ministry stated its rockets destroyed Ukrainian military targets but hasn’t commented on charges it targeted fleeing civilians. Russian troops have withdrawn from the majority of Kharkiv but have continued shelling.

Ukrainian officials say a Russian strike in Zaporizhzhia’s capital killed 30 and wounded 88. British Defense Ministry: Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles “very definitely” hit a humanitarian convoy. Russian-installed Zaporizhzhia officials blamed Ukrainian forces without evidence.

In another development, Russian authorities seized Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant director-general Ihor Murashov on Friday, according to Energoatom.

Energoatom said Russian troops blindfolded and carried Murashov to an unknown place.

Russia hasn’t commented on the report. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported Russia said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station director was held to answer questions.

The Vienna-based IAEA said it “hopes for a swift and acceptable resolution”

The battle often caught the power facility in the crossfire. Ukrainian specialists ran it after Russian soldiers captured it, and its last reactor was shut down in September due to surrounding bombardment.

Russian shelling killed four people in Donetsk on Friday, the governor said. Russian drones and missiles targeted Mykolaiv overnight, according to regional Gov. Vitaliy Kim.

Russia claims 15% of Ukraine after Friday’s land grab, which NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg branded “the greatest attempted annexation of European territory by force since World War II.”

Zelenskyy requested NATO membership Friday, increasing pressure on Western allies to defend Ukraine.

President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday that gives $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine.

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