Ukrainian stronghold Vuhledar falls to Russian offensive after two years of bombardment

Russian troops on Wednesday took the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar in the Donetsk region after it withstood more than two years of attacks following the Kremlin’s invasion.

The eventual seizure of the town signifies Russia’s leg up when it comes to the sheer manpower advantage it has over Ukraine, as Kyiv continues to plead with the West for more and faster supplies of weaponry. 

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A press officer from the 72nd Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine’s Armed Forces – a unit known for its hardy resistance – said according to a translation provided by Pravda Ukraine on Thursday that the wounded soldiers were successfully evacuated, but under “very difficult” conditions.

“The enemy pressed from the flanks, complicating logistics significantly,” Arsenii Prylipka told the news outlet before adding, “This is war. It is impossible to have no losses.” 

Prylipka highlighted the strain of the situation and said the commanding officer was forced to make a decision amid heavy fighting.

“They are continually striking, controlling, and complicating logistics, so a decision is made right on the battlefield,” he added, rebuffing any question that criticized the decision to withdraw from the coal mining town.

Ukraine’s eastern military command said it had ordered a pullback from the town to prevent Russian troops from encircling its forces positioned in Vuhledar and to “preserve personnel and military equipment,” reported Reuters. 

Apartment buildings damaged by a Russian military strike in Vuhledar in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, Oct. 10, 2023. (Reuters/Yevhen Titov)

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Though the town reportedly had a population of some 14,000 before Russia’s invasion in February 2022, it has been a frontline town since the start of the war, with the majority of the town’s residents having long since evacuated. 

Images show the beating the town has received after undergoing more than two years of Russian bombardment, many of the buildings not only abandoned, but smoke-covered and crumbling.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said his war aim is to take the whole of the Donbas region from Ukraine, and his troops currently occupy an estimated 80% of it. 

The last of the Ukrainian troops to withdraw from Vuhledar left Tuesday night, reported Reuters. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday backed the decision by the commanding officer to withdraw his brigade from the town.

Members of the 1st Independent Tank Brigade near Vuhledar, in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, March 6, 2023.  (Reuters/Lisi Niesner)

“It is necessary to protect their lives, because they are more important than any buildings. These are our people, these are citizens of Ukraine,” he said in response to a question by a reporter about the withdrawal following a meeting with the new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 

“Therefore, it is very correct that they leave and can save themselves. For the sake of the state, for the sake of its heroic service,” he added.