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War footage from Russian soldiers claimed to be verified by CNN shows Federation forces raising their flag above the town of Vuhledar, ending months of Ukrainian resistance, and cutting off supplies of coal to make steel in the Ukrainian arms industry.
The loss in and of itself is not a major blow, but rather the next chapter in an ongoing series of losses as Ukraine struggles to repel the grinding Russian advance.
Ukraine’s military confirmed its withdrawal from Vuhledar Wednesday, after Russian commanders managed to almost encircle it with the rapid deployment of reservists on the western and eastern flanks.
For nearly two years, the 72nd Mechanized infantry brigade had defended Vuhledar successfully, Kyiv Independent reports. Along with being a key intersection connecting the O-0532 paved country road, the town was the last fortified position of the Ukrainian line on the whole southern front of Donetsk that Ukraine controls.
It lies about 50 miles south of Pokrovsk, the headquarters of Kyiv’s forces in Donetsk Oblast, and now little established resistance remains between the southwest of the province and the Ukrainian defenses around Pokrovsk.
“The fact is that this ‘balcony’ [an apparent reference to Vuhledar’s elevated position] was located at the junction of the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk fronts posed a constant threat to the grouping that covered the approaches to Mariupol,” said a prominent Russian war blogger Boris Rozhin.
Impressively, recent advances in Ukrainian armament production coupled with continuous funding from the US have narrowed the artillery fire gap to about 1:3, meaning that for every shell the Ukrainians fire, the Russians fire 3—a substantial increase from periods of the war when the gap has been estimated at 1:10.
While too little too late to save Vuhledar and its coal mining areas, the improvements in shell production could elongate the potential defense of Pokrovsk by months. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: The battle lines with Pokrovsk in the north, and Vuhledar marked in yellow. PC: Deepstate Maps LIVE.
