ISTANBUL

Ukraine said on Saturday that its soldiers were entering the city of Lyman in the eastern region of Donetsk, which Russia had annexed a day earlier.

"Ukrainian Air Assault Forces are entering Lyman, Donetsk region. (The Ukrainian army) has and will always have the decisive vote in today's and any future 'referendums'," the country's Defense Ministry said on Twitter, posting a video of soldiers holding up a Ukrainian flag near a sign with the town's name.

Earlier, Serhiy Hayday, the governor of the Luhansk regional administration, said that thousands of Russian soldiers were encircled by Ukrainian forces in Lyman.

Ukrainian forces have "blocked almost all the ways of leaving and transporting ammunition to Russians," Hayday had said.

The Russian Defense Ministry, meanwhile, announced that allied troops had withdrawn from Krasny Port to more "advantageous lines" in connection with the threat of encirclement.