The Russian Army has achieved its biggest military victory in more than six months of fighting in Ukraine by taking control of Vugledarstrategic fortress that opens the doors to the south of the Donbas.
The authorities of the People’s Republic of Donetsk loyal to Moscow They confirmed to official media the raising of the tricolor flag in the administration building in the center of the city.
Next, Kyiv announced the withdrawal of the troops that defended the bastion since the first Russian attempts in March 2022, leaving behind barely a hundred civilians after the evacuation of all minors.
“The high command gave permission to carry out the maneuver to withdraw the units of Vugledar to preserve personnel and combat equipment and take positions for subsequent actions”, reported the Khortitsia operational-strategic group of the Ukrainian Army.
A Ukrainian soldier attends his position on the front line with Russian troops near Vugledar, Donetsk region, on February 27, 2023. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)
/
Symbolic Russian victory
The conquest of Vugledar is the greatest success for the Kremlin since the taking in February of this year of Avdivkathe main town under Ukrainian control on the outskirts of the capital of Donetsk.
“Indeed, our soldiers are already in Vugledar, the Russian flag has been raised on the local administration building”reported today Yan Gaguinadvisor to the Donetsk People’s Republic, to the RIA Novosti agency.
However, in the absence of official confirmation from the Ministry of Defense, the consulting sources specified that the cleanup of the last and “scattered“Ukrainian units”requires some time”.
Many apartments in Avdivka have been severely damaged by Russian shelling.
Another official source told the TASS agency that the enemy kyiv would have suffered “huge losses” for refusing to abandon the defense of Vugledar in time, something that some media outlets confirmed by including in their reports criticism from soldiers of their commanders for a hasty retreat, often on foot.
Along the same lines, 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 that city in its daily report.
Two and a half years of bloody fighting
Vugledar, which had more than 14,000 inhabitants before the war, was one of the main objectives of the Russian offensive that began in Donbas in October 2023.
Given the continuous attacks against the bridge Crimeathe railway between Donetsk and the peninsula became a logistical alternative, but its passage just a few kilometers from Vugledar made it too unsafe.
MORE INFORMATION: Joe Biden announces that the United States will provide Ukraine with long-range weapons
For this reason, the Russian authorities were even forced to build a new railway between the southern Russian region of Rostov and the town of Volnovaja in Donetsk.
Given the large number of casualties suffered in the two great advances carried out by the Russian army in the first winter of the war, Moscow decided to change tactics.
Plumes of smoke rise at an oil storage facility in the Rostov region of southern Russia on August 18, 2024. (Photo by X @Gorashchenko_en)
From the frontal attacks with mechanized brigades that were destroyed by the minefields and the Ukrainian units stationed in the multi-story buildings located on the hill on which the city is located, the Russians began to attack in small detachments on the flanks, betting on a tactic of attrition.
According to Russian media, the final assault began less than two weeks ago and was facilitated by the seizure of mining operations located north of the city.
In fact, Ukrainian soldiers 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 the capture of Vugledar it was impossible to take control of all of southern Donbas. Now, according to Western media, Moscow has a clear path.
According to the American press, Russian troops are taking territories at a speed that has not been seen in the Donbas since the beginning of the military campaign.
In the coming weeks, they predict, most likely Ukraine You will also lose control of Pokrovskone of the main objectives of the current Russian offensive, which also includes Toretsk.
ALSO SEE: Putin says Russia would consider nuclear response to ‘massive’ airstrike
One of the objectives, further north, is the town of Kurajovewhich houses enormous lithium resources, one of the most precious treasures in this war.
Furthermore, the Russians are already advancing in an easterly direction in order to besiege Velika Novosilka, another important fortress near the border between Donetsk and Zaporozhye.
The Ukrainian president himself, Volodymyr Zelenskyrecognized that the situation on the Eastern Front is very complicated upon his return from the United States, where he requested authorization for the use of long-range missiles against Russian territory, a red line for the Kremlin.
