TOP HEADLINES

· Ukrainian troops said they had retaken the key bastion of Lyman in Donetsk which is part of the territory that Vladimir Putin said is now in Russia after a local 'referendum.' "Dear Ukrainians - today the armed forces of Ukraine ... liberated and took control the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk region," said a soldier, on social media, while standing by the town council building. READ MORE BELOW

· President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised more quick gains 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," he said in a Saturday evening video address.

· Ukraine's armed forces said on Sunday its jets had carried out 29 strikes in the past 24 hours, destroying weapons and anti-aircraft missile systems, while ground troops had hit command posts, warehouses containing ammunition and anti-aircraft missile complexes.

· Ukraine's successes have infuriated Putin's 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 low-yield nuclear weapons," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

· Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk region, said that the retaking of Lyman is a main reason for reclaiming lost territory in neighbouring 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.

· The head of the UN nuclear watchdog called for the release of the director-general of Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ihor Murashov, saying his detention posed a threat to safety and security. "IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi expressed the hope that Mr Murashov will return to his family safely and promptly and will be able to resume his important functions at the plant," the agency tweeted.

· Italy's Eni said it would not receive any of the gas it had requested from Russia's Gazprom for delivery on Saturday, but the firms said they were working to fix this. Moscow and several European countries, including Germany, have been at loggerheads over the supply of natural gas from Russia since the country's invasion of Ukraine in February.

· Germany will deliver the first of four advanced IRIS-T air defence systems to Ukraine in the coming days to help ward off drone attacks, Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht said during an unannounced visit to Odesa.

· The centre-right New Unity party of Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins won Saturday's election, according to provisional results. The results - with 96 percent of districts counted - mean Latvia should remain a leading voice in pushing the European Union for a decisive stance against Russia. 

"First and foremost on everyone's minds is how we all get through the winter, not only in Latvia but throughout the EU, and that we all remain united behind Ukraine, and do not waiver in the face of difficulties for us," said Karins.

IN DETAIL

Soldiers hoist a Ukrainian flag after retaking the key bastion of Lyman

Ukrainian troops said they had retaken 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 low-grade nuclear weapons.

The recapture on Saturday came just a day after Putin proclaimed nearly a fifth of Ukraine - including Donetsk, where Lyman is located - was now part of Russia, and placed it under its nuclear umbrella.

Ukrainian soldiers announced the capture in a video recorded outside the town council building in the centre of Lyman and posted on social media.

"Dear Ukrainians - today the armed forces of Ukraine ... liberated and took control of the settlement of Lyman, Donetsk region," one of the soldiers says. At the end of the video, a group of soldiers cheered and threw Russian flags down from the building's roof and raised a Ukrainian flag in their place.

Hours earlier, Russia's defense ministry had announced it was pulling troops out of the area "in connection with the creation of a threat of encirclement."

Lyman had fallen in May to Russian forces, which had used it 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.

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Ukraine's armed forces said in a statement on Sunday morning that its jets had carried out 29 strikes in the past 24 hours, destroying weapons and anti-aircraft missile systems, while ground troops had hit command posts, warehouses containing ammunition and anti-aircraft missile complexes.

Russian forces launched four missiles and 16 air strikes and used Iranian-made Shahed-136 drones to attack infrastructure, Ukraine's statement said, adding more than 30 settlements were damaged, chiefly in the south and southeast.

Ukraine's successes have infuriated Putin's 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 low-yield nuclear weapons," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

Other top officials, including former President Dmitry Medvedev, have suggested Russia may need to resort to nuclear weapons, but Kadyrov's call was the most urgent and explicit.

Putin said last week that he was not bluffing when he said he was prepared to defend Russia's "territorial integrity" with all available means, and on Friday made clear this extended to the new regions claimed by Moscow.