Russian troops have seized a key Ukrainian coal-mining town in the war-torn Donbas region that Vladimir Putin’s forces could use as an outpost to launch attacks deeper in Ukraine.
Russian troops on Wednesday rolled into the wrecked town of Vuhledar in the southeastern part of the country — was once home to about 14,000 people, according to CBS News.
Over the last two years, the bastion in the Donetsk Oblast had withstood repeated Russian attacks.
But the intensifying assaults threatened to cut the defenders off from the rest of the country, leading to the decision to withdraw and “preserve personnel and military equipment,” the outlet said.
“These are very hard days. Very!” The 72nd Mechanized Brigade, which was the last Ukrainian unit defending the city, wrote in an Instagram post that also had photos of wounded soldiers.
Moscow has seized about a fifth of Ukraine after more than two years of fierce fighting with its smaller neighbor, which it invaded in February 2022 under the dubious premise of demilitarizing and “de-Nazifying” the country.
The war eventually settled into what appeared to be a grinding, static conflict along a heavily-fortified, 620-mile front that involved more drone strikes and artillery barrages than big troop movements, CBS said.
But in August, the stalemate seemed to end when the Ukrainians launched a shock attack on Russia’s Kursk region — and Russian troops began to advance along a 95-mile front in the country’s eastern regions.
The summer campaign forced Kyiv to cede thousands of square miles of territory to the invaders, who are backed by missiles, glide bombs, drones and artillery.
Russia’s superiority in men and material has weighed heavily on the Ukraine forces, which have been funded and supplied by western countries that have, at times, been reluctant to offer more aid.
Putin has said Russia’s goal is to snatch the Donbas region, an industrial hub composed of the Donetsk and Luhansk provinces. Russia now reportedly controls about 80% of it.
The Russians captured the eastern city of Ukrainsk on Sept. 17, then slowly began a pincer movement meant to capture Vuhledar, CBS said.
Although the Russia’s defense ministry didn’t mention the foray in its daily battlefield report, Russian Telegram channels have posted videos of troops waving Russian flags over the devastated city.
Although neither side reveals their losses, both said many had died in the conflict.
“Having suffered numerous losses as a result of prolonged battles, the enemy did not stop trying to capture Vuhledar,” Ukraine’s eastern command said Wednesday.
“In an effort to take control of the city at any cost, he managed to direct the reserves to carry out flanking attacks, which exhausted the defense of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the command continued. “As a result of the enemy’s actions, there was a risk of the encirclement of the city.
“The higher command has given permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to preserve personnel and combat equipment, to take up positions for further actions.”
The newly-captured city could provide a staging point for Russian advances deeper into the country, and could help them cut Ukraine’s supply lines to the southern front.
At the moment, Russia controls nearly all the Luhansk region and just over half of Donetsk.
With Post wires
