Defeat prompts call for nuclear strike Expresident leads Brazil voting polls
KYIV: Ukrainian troops said they had taken the key bastion of Lyman in occupied eastern Ukraine, a stinging defeat that prompted a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for the possible use of lowgrade nuclear weapons.
The capture on Saturday came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of nearly a fifth of Ukraine — including Donetsk, where Lyman is located — and placed the regions under Russia’s nuclear umbrella. Kyiv and the West condemned the ornate ceremony as an illegitimate farce.
Ukrainian soldiers announced the capture in a video recorded outside the town council building in the centre of Lyman and posted on social media by Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
‘‘Dear Ukrainians — today the armed forces of Ukraine . . . liberated and took control of the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk region,’’ one of the soldiers said. At the end of the video, a group of soldiers threw Russian flags down from the building’s roof and raised a Ukrainian flag in their place.
Hours earlier, Russia’s defence ministry had announced it was pulling troops out of the area ‘‘in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement’’.
Russia had used Lyman as a logistics and transport hub for its operations in the north of the Donetsk region. Its capture is Ukraine’s biggest battlefield gain since the lightning counteroffensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region last month.
Seeking to capitalise on Ukraine’s recent gains, Zelenskiy promised more quick successes in the Donbas, which covers the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are largely under Russian control.
‘‘Over the past week, the number of Ukrainian flags in Donbas has increased. There will be even more in a week’s time,’’ the president said in an evening video address.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cheered Lyman’s capture, saying it would create new problems for Russia’s military. ‘‘We’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing right now.’’
Austin noted that Lyman was positioned across supply lines that Russia has used to push its troops and material down to the south and to the west, as the Kremlin presses its more than sevenmonthlong invasion of Ukraine.
‘‘Without those routes, it will be more difficult. So it presents a sort of a dilemma for the Russians going forward.’’
Austin did not say whether he thought Ukraine’s capture of Lyman might prompt Russian escalation.
Ukraine’s successes have infuriated Putin allies such as Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia’s southern Chechnya region.
‘‘In my personal opinion, more drastic measures should be taken, right up to the declaration of martial law in the border areas and the use of lowyield nuclear weapons,’’ Kadyrov wrote on Telegram before Zelenskiy spoke. — Reuters
BRASILIA: Former Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva holds a solid polling lead going into the election today against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro, with a chance of clinching the race in the first round, fresh surveys showed on Saturday.
Brazil's most polarised election in decades will decide whether to return to power the leftist leader who spent time in jail on corruption convictions or the rightwing populist who has attacked the voting system and threatened to contest defeat.
Two polls released on Saturday showed Lula with a majority of valid votes, which would mean outright victory, avoiding a bruising runoff.
Pollster IPEC showed Lula winning 51% of valid votes, excluding blank and spoiled ballots, and a Datafolha poll showed the popular twoterm president with 50% of valid votes.
Both surveys, from some of Brazil's most established polling teams, had a margin of error of 2 percentage points and showed Lula with an advantage of 14 percentage points over Bolsonaro.
Two other polls released on Saturday by CNT/MDA and Genial/Quaest showed Lula with 48% and 49% of valid votes respectively, within the margin of error of outright victory.
If none of the 11 presidential candidates gets more than 50% of valid votes, the two frontrunners — almost certainly Lula and Bolsonaro — would go to a secondround vote on October 30.
Lula told reporters he was hoping to finish the election today: ``I can only be optimistic. There is very little to go to reach 50% plus one vote,'' he said.
Bolsonaro, a 67yearold former army captain who spent nearly three decades in Congress pushing his progun, antigay and antiabortion agenda, was swept into office in 2018 on a wave of conservative backlash to Lula's Workers Party.