Ukraine celebrates recapturing key town, Putin ally raises nuclear jitters - Reuters

KYIV, Oct 2 (Reuters) - 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 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.

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.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promised more quick successes in the Donbas, which covers the Donetsk and Luhansk regions that are largely under Russian control.

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.

Austin did not say whether he thought Ukraine's capture of Lyman might prompt Russian escalation, although U.S.

Any areas affected by Russian tactical nuclear weapons would thus be impassable for the Russians, likely precluding Russian advances," ISW said.

Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern forces, said before the capture that Russia had 5,000 to 5,500 troops at Lyman but the number encircled could be lower.

Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of Luhansk region, said that the retaking of Lyman is one of the key factors for reclaiming lost territory in neighbouring Luhansk, whose full capture Moscow announced in early July after weeks of grinding advances.

"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 messaging app on Sunday.

The areas Putin claimed as Russian - the Donbas regions of Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia - form a swath of territory equal to about 18% of Ukraine's total surface land area.