2024-09-26 19:17:24
The situation in Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine is escalating. According to Ukrainian sources and Russian pro-war bloggers, the Russians are trying to surround it. The mining town, which the Ukrainians have been defending against massive Russian attacks basically since the beginning of the war, has strategic importance.
Drone footage shows explosions and smoke rising from buildings in Ukraine’s Vuhledar | Video: Reuters
Yuriy Podoljaka, a pro-Russian war blogger of Ukrainian origin, already claimed on Telegram on Monday that Russian troops had entered Vuhledar. “The attack on the city has begun,” he wrote.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its troops had defeated Ukrainian defenders in several villages in the region, including Vuhledar, just outside Donetsk, and had improved their tactical positions there.
An unnamed deputy commander of Ukraine’s 72nd Mechanized Brigade told the Financial Times that his unit had no air defenses in the city. It is also greatly depleted, as he says there has not been a single rotation of troops since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022, which should otherwise be the standard once every two months. “We need a break,” he admitted.
Also according to analysts from the DeepState project, which is close to the Ukrainian military, the situation around the city is critical and is getting worse. The Russians attempt to surround Vuhledar and bombard it with guided bombs and artillery.
The Nexta server reported that the occupiers have switched to the so-called scorched earth tactic, which consists in the maximum destruction of anything useful that the enemy could use in the next fight.
Finnish analyst Emil Kastehelmi told Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent on Tuesday that he would be surprised if the battle for the city lasted long. “I think right now we are seeing the end of Vuhledar,” said Kastehelmi, who works for the Black Bird Group, which monitors the fighting in Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian government statistics, 14,000 people lived in Vuhledar before the war, but by February of this year, only around a hundred people remained there, mainly pensioners living in the basements of apartment buildings. The area is basically depopulated and destroyed.
Even so, according to The Kyiv Independent, the morale of Ukrainians would suffer greatly if the enemy gained control of the city. “Potentially, the loss could threaten the security of the entire south-western part of the Donetsk region, which has not yet been occupied,” pointed out Federico Borsari from the Center for European Policy Analysis.
Vuhledar lies on an elevated plain and is located north of the key intersection connecting the road O-0532 towards Vodjane and Kostynivka. The next road leads to the town of Kurachov. “It is a key logistical point for the Ukrainian forces defending Kurachov’s southern flank,” Borsari pointed out.
About 20 kilometers east of Vuhledar, according to the British BBC, there is a railway line along which the Russians can move soldiers and equipment on the route between Donetsk and Volnovacha and further south. As long as the city remains under Kyiv’s control, Ukrainian artillery can shell the track.
The Russians have been trying to capture Vuhledar since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, until now their attacks have failed. Especially at the beginning of 2023, it became the scene of intense clashes for several weeks. Ukrainian officials said at the time that it was the largest tank battle of Russian aggression to date.
The Ukrainians are now also waging heavy fighting near the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region, where the Russian army is trying to break through. Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region was also supposed to weaken its position there. In an interview with Aktuálně.cz this week, Ukrainian Army Major Ihor Lapin stated that the Russians had to send sixty thousand soldiers to Kursk.
Video: Zelenskyi won’t say it publicly. But she already knows that the war will not end the way she wants, says Procházková (September 14, 2024)
Spotlight – Journalist Petra Procházková and the future of war in Ukraine | Video: Vojtěch Gross