The Russian army succeeded its biggest military victory in more than six monthss of fighting in Ukraine by taking control of Vugledarstrategic fortress which opens the doors to southern Donbass.
The authorities of the Donetsk People’s Republic loyal to Moscow confirmed to official media the raising of the tricolor flag on the administrative building in the center of the city.
kyiv then announced the withdrawal of the troops who had defended the bastion since the first Russian attempts in March 2022, leaving behind only around a hundred civilians after the evacuation of all the miners.
“The high command gave permission to carry out the withdrawal maneuver of units from Vugledar in order to preserve personnel and combat equipment and take positions for subsequent actions,” reported the Khortitsia operational and strategic group of the Ukrainian army.
Symbolic Russian victory
The conquest of Vugledar is the Kremlin’s greatest success since the capture last February of Avdivka, the main town under Ukrainian control on the outskirts of the capital Donetsk.
“Indeed, our soldiers are already in Vugledar“The Russian flag was raised on the local administration building,” Yan Gagin, advisor to the Donetsk People’s Republic, told RIA Novosti today.
However, in the absence of official confirmation from the Ministry of Defense, the sources consulted specified that cleaning up the last “dispersed” Ukrainian units “requires some time”.
Aerial view of the town of Vuhledar.
Reuters
Another official source told the agency TASS that the enemy Kyiv reportedly suffered “huge losses” for refusing to abandon the defense of Vugledar in time, which some media confirmed by including in their reports criticism of their commanders’ soldiers for a hasty retreat, often on foot.
In the same vein, the DeepState war monitoring platform, close to the kyiv Ministry of Defense, also considered the city lost, while the Ukrainian General Staff did not even include the situation in this city in his daily report.
In the spotlight
Vugledar, which had more than 14,000 inhabitants before the war, was one of the main objectives of the Russian offensive launched in Donbass in October 2023.
Given the continued attacks on the Crimean Bridge, the railway between Donetsk and the peninsula became a logistical alternative, but its passage a few kilometers from Vugledar made it too dangerous.
For this reason, the Russian authorities were even forced to build a new railway between the Rostov region in southern Russia and the town of Volnovaja in Donetsk.
Given the large number of casualties suffered during the two major advances made by the Russian army during the first winter of the war, Moscow has decided to change tactics.
Starting from frontal attacks with mechanized brigades destroyed by minefields and Ukrainian units stationed in the multi-storey buildings located on the hill on which the city is located, the Russians began to attack in small detachments on the flanks, by betting on a tactic of attrition.
According to Russian media, The final assault began less than two weeks ago and this was facilitated by the seizure of mining operations located to the north of the city.
Indeed, the Ukrainian army recognized today on television that the loss of the bastion is a direct consequence of the pressing lack of men to maintain the positions and demanded a new mobilization.
Unstoppable Russian advance
Without Vugledar’s hold it was impossible to take control of the entire southern Donbass. Now, according to Western media, Moscow has a clear path forward.
According to the American press, Russian troops are taking territories at a speed never before seen in Donbass since the start of the military campaign.
In the coming weeks they plan, most likely Ukraine will also lose control of Pokrovskone of the main objectives of the current Russian offensive, which also includes Toretsk.
One of the objectives, further north, is the city of Kurajovéwho welcomes enormous lithium resources, one of the most precious treasures of this war.
Furthermore, the Russians are already advancing east to besiege Velika Novosilka, another important fortress located near the border between Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia.
The Ukrainian president himself, Volodymyr Zelenskyrecognized that The situation on the Eastern Front is very complicated on his return from the United States, where he requested authorization to use long-range missiles against Russian territory, a red line for the Kremlin.
