Early September On 3 September, Ukraine's
103rd Territorial Defense Brigade began to conduct combat operations in the
Donetsk Oblast as part of
a major Ukrainian offensive. The brigade's 63rd Battalion established crossings over the
Siverskyi Donets river from the village of , and, with the support of units of the
Ukrainian National Guard's
15th Regiment, took control of the village of
Ozerne. The
Institute for the Study of War said that the capture of the village implied "degrading Russian control of the river's left bank east of
Sloviansk". Amid the
2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, when Ukraine retook
Kupiansk and
Izium, Ukraine also claimed it had reached the southern outskirts of Lyman on 10 September. The same day, military equipment was sent to Lyman and battles were fought on the outskirts of the city.
Igor Girkin reported that the Russian army had retreated and units from the
LPR and
DPR forces were defending forested areas near Lyman. It was later claimed that the Russian troops garrisoning Lyman had not been properly supplied and reinforced by the region's leading Russian commander,
Alexander Lapin. BARS-13 commander Sergei Fomchenkov publicly warned that his troops' position was "extremely difficult", but initially expressed the belief that the city could be held.
15 September On 15 September, Ukrainian forces retook Sosnove, forcing the small Russian force in the nearby
Studenok, a settlement in Kharkiv Oblast east of the Oskil River, to withdraw to avoid encirclement.
17 September On 17 September, Ukrainian forces liberated the town of
Shchurove, 6 km southwest of Lyman.
19-21 September Fierce battles took place in
Yarova by 19 September, and Russian
military bloggers reported fighting in
Drobysheve on 21 September. , registered RF-81852, pictured after the Russian withdrawal.
22 September Yatskivka and
Korovii Yar came under Ukrainian control by 22 September, as Ukrainian forces inched closer to the administrative border of Donetsk Oblast and Kharkiv Oblast as well as Luhansk Oblast. The same day, several Russian sources reported fighting to the northwest of Lyman and claimed that Ukrainian troops penetrated Russian defenses in Ridkodub and
Karpivka, both 20 km north of Lyman.
24-26 September By 24–25 September, Ukrainian forces tried to push south from the Ridkodub-Nove line.
28 September By 28 September, Ukrainian forces had recaptured Karpivka, Nove, Ridkodub, and Novoselivka in Donetsk Oblast, and were advancing eastward to liberate Katerynivka. It was also reported that Ukrainian forces had liberated
Zelena Dolyna, about 15 km north of Lyman. Geolocated combat footage corroborated claims made by Russian milbloggers that Ukrainians took control of Zelena Dolyna and pushed east to take control of
Kolodiazi (11 km northeast of Lyman).
29 September On 29 September, a prominent Russian milblogger reported that Ukrainian forces broke through Russian defenses around , 10 km north of Lyman, and cut the Torske-Drobysheve road, the last supply and egress route for Russian elements holding the line west of Lyman. Another Russian milblogger, Rybar, pointed out that Ukrainian troops were attacking Lyman from three directions and had cut Russian access to the critical Svatove-Lyman road, the major ground line of communication (GLOC) sustaining the Russian grouping within Lyman itself.
30 September On 30 September, Russian sources indicated that Ukrainian forces had recaptured Stavky and severed the Drobysheve-Torske road, causing the Russian military to abandon Drobysheve. By 30 September, a Russian war correspondent reported that the last highway into Lyman had been cut off by Ukrainian forces, calling the situation "extremely difficult" for the Russian soldiers there, and claimed that elements of the BARS-13 detachment and the 752nd Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 20th Combined Arms Army were "defending around Drobysheve and into Lyman." On 30 September, Ukrainian forces liberated Yampil, and engaged in fierce battle around Zarichne-Torske area. Some Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces had crossed the Siverskyi Donets River in Dronivka and were operating in the forests south of Kreminna, and Russian sources uniformly noted that Ukrainian artillery continued to interdict Russian forces’ single remaining egress route on the Kreminna-Torske road. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy spoke of progress around Lyman in a video address on 30 September. He thanked Ukrainian troops for the liberation of
Yampil, to the southeast and
Drobysheve, to the northwest of the city.
Fall of the city and withdrawal of the Russian troops 1 October On 1 October Ukrainian troops raised the Ukrainian flag at an entrance sign to Lyman, after the Russian troops claimed to have withdrawn. It was initially reported that up to 5,000 Russian troops remained trapped inside. The Russian defence ministry confirmed that its forces had lost control of Lyman later that afternoon. According to Serhii Cherevatyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern forces, the Russian forces were surrounded. He said that the capture of Lyman was important because "it is the next step towards liberation of the Ukrainian Donbas". The gains came a day after Russian president Putin proclaimed at a ceremony in Moscow, that the occupied regions of Ukraine, including the Donbas, were now Russian. Retired US general
Ben Hodges said "This puts in bright lights that his claim is illegitimate and cannot be enforced". Later on 1 October, Russian sources stated that their troops had withdrawn from Lyman toward the east, including
Kreminna. The
United Kingdom Ministry of Defence estimated that the Russian forces had taken "heavy" losses during their hasty retreat to escape the encirclement. Based on
social media messages and announcements of combat losses, the
BBC assessed that the 1,600-strong
3rd Guards Spetsnaz Brigade suffered its worst casualties to date during fighting in Lyman, with the possibility that 75% of its reconnaissance company troops were lost. A significant number of fleeing Russian troops were trapped in a smaller pocket east of the city. Some Russian contingents had also lost contact to their main force, and hid in the nearby forests.
2 October Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on 2 October that Lyman had been "fully cleared". ==Aftermath==