Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov told a briefing that Ukraine had taken back 93 settlements and liberated over 2,400 square km (926 square miles) in the region since 21 September.
Sky News could not verify these claims.
Ukrainian forces have been advancing in the east and south of the country under a counteroffensive that has seen the country take back key cities like Lyman in eastern Ukraine.
Mr Gromov said Russian troops were fighting to slow a Ukrainian advance outof Kupiansk, a recently liberated railway hub town.
This map shows the areas controlled by each side in the east according to the latest Sky News analysis.
These guys are steadily retaking Ukrainian territory on the eastern front, and despite their exhausted appearance, they can smell victory, according to Sky’s special correspondent Alex Crawford.
They have a lot of self-assurance and confidence right now. They are eager to retake more, too.
I asked the soldiers: “How confident are you about retaking Severodonetsk, Lysychansk?”
One replied: “100%. This is Ukraine.”
Lyman is their biggest win on the battlefield in weeks and the first since President Vladimir Putin declared this Russian territory.
So tearing down the Russian flags inside Lyman is delivered with particular relish.
Pic: Reuters
Seizing Lyman it is hoped will be the launchpad to reclaim even more land in the east.
The Ukrainians have been celebrating with their foreign friends who have fought alongside them.
Now they’re pushing forward. The road to Lyman is littered with the discards of fierce fighting but the Ukrainians say they have also surrounded their enemy in parts of Lysychansk nearly 60km (37 miles) away.
A soldier said: “Now they are on the Lysychansk plant. They are surrounded, they will be pushed back and the road to Lysychansk will be opened.”
Neighbouring towns, like Siversk, have suffered badly in the fight to retake Lyman – with house after house destroyed. Those still here are just clinging to hope.
A local man said: “I want peace. I want that my parents will be alive. I want that my wife will be alive. Nothing more.”
But Russians are still close enough to instill much fear.
The Ukrainians have blown up bridges into Bakhmut to slow down any Russian advance
Forty minutes south, the ferocity of the Russian assault is stark in Bakhmut. This was the Ukrainians’ key military hub for the east, now blasted to bits and a virtual ghost town.
There are enormous craters that have utterly changed the geography around here and ripped the heart out of the town.
The holdouts move around in a war-torn haze – weary and tearful.
Irina said: “These borders that they’re trying to change. It’s for those who divide. They divide big money between them and they don’t care about us people, the people who are living here. I’m sorry because a lot of my friends died. Big politics is filthy.”
Irina
Victory tastes very different depending on where you are.
The Russians are still on the edges of Bakhmut fighting and making their presence very much felt.
I asked a local man: “Did you think the Russians were close to coming in?”
He replied: “You understand maybe for a little while they will succeed, but everyone wants the opposite. But here there are a lot of collaborators, a lot, and they are saying a lot of terrible things.
“I start arguing with them, which I shouldn’t do, because God forbid if they do come here, those people will be first who betray.”
Before the host intervenes and denies it, a pundit on Russian official television appears to have revealed that the panellists weren’t intended to bring up the liberated city of Lyman.
Maxim Yusin, a foreign policy specialist, asserts that Russians likewise think the conflict is not going well for their nation.
He says on the show: “I see the dynamics of the military action on the front.
“We aren’t talking about what is happening near Lyman.”
The host then interjects with: “Who forbade you to talk about it?”
Russian troops pulled out of the eastern city of Lyman due to the risk of being encircled by Ukraine’s forces.
Mr Yusin later said on the Russian state TV broadcast: “Ask anyone here, when they’re in the make-up room.
“I think anyone will honestly admit they don’t know whether the mobilisation will help us or not, to change the course of military actions.
“It’s easy to say ‘after the liberation of Zaporizhzhia’.
“Yeah, try liberating it, the way everything is going.”
The host Andrey Norkin also said at one stage the Ukrainians are “planning to declare war against Russia” before another pundit suggest Ukraine might start bombing Moscow.
Retired four-star US army general Barry R McCaffrey shared the video and said it shows “Russian State TV is starting to fragment.”
He continues: “Lyman a disaster for the Russians. The Kherson pocket could lose 15,000 Russian prisoners. The mobilisation a disaster. All pressures on Putin criminal action might generate a desperate reaction. He’s unravelling.”
The Lyman’s capture by Ukraine was praised as hopeful by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. UK Defense Intelligence described it as a significant political setback for Russia in the meantime.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday cheered Ukraine’s capture of the key bastion of Lyman from Russia in eastern Ukraine, saying it was an encouraging battlefield success that would create new dilemmas for Russia’s military.
“Absolutely, it’s significant. We’re very encouraged by what we’re seeing right now,” Austin told reporters at a news conference in Hawaii.
Austin noted that Lyman was positioned across supply lines Russia has used to push its troops and materiel down to the south and to the west as the Kremlin presses its more than seven-month-long invasion of Ukraine.
“Without those routes, it will be more difficult,” Austin added. “It presents a sort of a dilemma for the Russians going forward.”
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, and “reiterated President Biden’s message that the United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders.”
“We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically,” Blinken said.
The capture of Lyman came just a day after Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — including Donetsk, where the city is located. The proclamation of Russian rule over 15% of Ukraine was roundly rejected by Ukraine and Western countries as illegal.
