A Ukrainian official in the area confirmed the report on Tuesday. Verified footage also showed Russian soldiers waving a flag from atop a bombed-out multistory building and raising another flag on a metal spire on the roof.
Other images show smoke rising from the ruins of the small mining town, now a desolate and devastated battlefield where Ukrainian units fought off Russian armoured attacks throughout the two-and-a-half-year war.
Satellite imagery from September 2024 shows the town of Vuhledar heavily damaged during fierce fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Photo: Planet Labs
"The enemy is close to the city centre," Vadym Filashkin, governor of the Donetsk region, part of the wider Donbas historical region, told Ukrainian television, describing the situation as very difficult.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military did not comment on the situation in Vuhledar on Tuesday. It is unclear whether Russian forces are in full control of the town.
Fighting footage from the popular military blog DeepState shows Russian forces across Vuhledar. Ukrainian public television station Suspilne quoted soldiers fighting there as saying they had not been ordered to leave.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that President Vladimir Putin "regularly receives information directly from the military," including about Vuhledar.
Vuhledar is a strategic stronghold in eastern Ukraine. Graphic photo: ISW
Russian military bloggers, including a group of military analysts who run the popular Rybar Telegram channel, have hailed the capture of the town, which could accelerate the advance of Russian forces in the Donbas region.
Vuhledar is strategically important because of its high terrain and location near the junction of two main fronts, in eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian forces arrived on the outskirts last week and have since stepped up their attacks.
Earlier, Andriy Nazarenko, commander of a drone battalion of Ukraine's 72nd Mechanized Brigade, said they were outgunned and outnumbered in Vuhledar.
"The situation in Vuhledar is very difficult, the most difficult because the attacks have been going on for more than six months and the enemy is constantly changing its ranks with new, well-trained forces," Nazarenko said.
Speaking at an undisclosed location in a Zoom interview, Nazarenko said his unit was doing everything possible to maintain “a gap” so infantry could retreat from the town.
Full control of Vuhledar would allow the Russian army to improve logistics by using the railway more actively, facilitating advances in the area and gaining elevated positions for artillery fire.
Bui Huy (according to Reuters)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/phao-dai-chien-luoc-vuhledar-cua-ukraine-that-thu-truoc-quan-doi-nga-post314842.html
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