The fall of Vuhledar. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers trapped. Russia surrounds key fortress city

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers ‘trapped’ after Russia surrounds fortress city in rapid advance

Evacuation routes out of Vuhledar, towards the southern edge of the frontline, have been cut off

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers could be trapped in a besieged town as Russian forces complete their encirclement and close in.

In a desperate plea, one Ukrainian soldier described how evacuation routes out of Vuhledar had been cut and food, ammunition and fuel were running low.

“The situation in Vuhledar is, to put it mildly, difficult,” the unnamed Ukrainian soldier told Stanislav Bunyatov, a Ukrainian soldier and blogger. “The attack is now coming from three sides.”

The soldier said that it was too dangerous for Ukrainian armoured personnel carriers to drive towards friendly lines because of Russian artillery and drone attacks.

Instead, he described how individual units were trying to quietly slip out of the Russian encirclement at night in fighting retreat formations.

“On average, if 10 people leave the city in groups, four to six make it out,” he said.

The soldiers’ complaints were published the day after senior Ukrainian commanders withdrew the commander of Ukraine’s 72nd Brigade that has been defending Vuhledar.

Colonel Ivan Vinnik is reportedly highly regarded and has been tipped for a promotion but some commentators said that he had been withdrawn because he needed to be “saved” before the town was lost.

Vuhledar, towards the southern edge of the front line that runs through Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has been described as a Ukrainian “fortress” because it has never been captured.

Even Ukrainian and neutral information sources have said that Vuhledar, positioned on high ground overlooking an important east-west road, is likely to fall.

DeepState, a pro-Ukraine Telegram channel, confirmed that Russia has sent “regular forces and special forces” as reinforcements to the area and OSINT Aggregator said Ukraine “may have tried to hold Vuhledar longer than operationally feasible”.

www.telegraph.co.uk...

At this point I am sick of both sides and wish they would # off in tandem

a reply to: Imhere

originally posted by: Athetos
At this point I am sick of both sides and wish they would # off in tandem

a reply to: Imhere

Agreed. Enough life’s taken and money spent. For what? The same outcome as it would be in a year or two or three? Ughhh

If you remember, Volodymyr Zelenskyy just completed a trip to Washington DC and the United Nations to solicit more money and support for his alleged victory plan over Russia. He wanted authorization from this administration to use long range missiles to strike deep into Russia, which he failed to get. His insistence on holding onto Vuhledar so long was to appear to be successfully withstanding the continuous Russian advances to make it appear further western support would not be wasted. The same with his Kursk operation. In fact, the Russians are now advancing along all fronts and the Ukrainian forces are so depleted, they can't stop Russia anywhere now.

They waited too long to withdraw from Vuhledar, to the point Russian forces were able to complete the encirclement trapping approximately 1500 soldiers of one of Ukraine's best fighting units there. Now, their only option is to withdraw 10 at a time in the dead of night and most of them are not making it out.

Ukraine can't win this fight!

a reply to: Imhere

Article in the Russian publication Tsargrad:

Russian military personnel report that Ugledar, the battle for which the Russian army began on February 24, 2022, by hitting the Ukrainian Armed Forces infrastructure with a missile, has been liberated. The Russian flag has been raised over the city center.

The two-year battle for this settlement is explained by the fact that Ugledar, although a small town (area 1.41 sq. km, pre-war population - almost 15 thousand people), was located at the highest point among the steppes in the southern part of the DPR. The height of its center is 187 meters. The surrounding area can be seen from it for many kilometers. It is simply unrealistic to approach it and begin a frontal assault: heavy equipment on the approaches is knocked out and burns.

In addition, even before the SVO, the Ukrainian command turned Ugledar into a real fortress: firing points, underground passages and bunkers were equipped.

Therefore, the Russian command ultimately made the right decision: to take the city in pincers, isolate the theater of military operations, taking control of all the roads along which it was possible to deliver ammunition and reserves to the city, and to evacuate the wounded. When this was done in September, even the Ukrainians realized that Ugledar was doomed. Moreover, the Ukrainian command missed the moment when it was still possible to withdraw units without significant losses. As a result: many prisoners, units leaving the city reach their own with huge losses. Only a third to a quarter of those who decided to leave leave. Senior Lieutenant Alexander "Varyag" Matyushin says the following about the importance of this victory:

"The significance of the liberation of Ugledar cannot be overestimated. Firstly, it is a moral victory. The Ukrops, as they say, have lost another "unconquered fortress" (an unconquered fortress - ed.), which, as you understand, does not improve their appetite. This is another pebble on the scale with the inscription "Everything is lost/There is no way out".

Secondly, they are losing fire control over the Donetsk-Mariupol highway and the settlements adjacent to it. Let me remind you that the distance between Ugledar and Volnovakha is 26 km in a straight line, that is, the city was in the zone of destruction of Ukrainian large-caliber artillery: M777 hits at 30-40 km with special Excalibur shells. By the way, now, for Ukrainian artillery, in general, strikes on the railway will not be available communication between Donetsk and Mariupol, which will be opened."

Thirdly, according to Matyushin, we can say that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost a point from which they could launch a new "counteroffensive" in the direction of Mariupol in order to cut Novorossiya in half, and, having destroyed the Crimean Bridge, lock the Russian army in the Kherson, Zaporozhye regions and Crimea.

Fourthly, Ukraine has reduced its ability to control the land corridor to Crimea with the help of NATO missiles. The threat to the Crimean Bridge has decreased, and most importantly: the railway route along the land corridor from Rostov-on-Don to Simferopol/Sevastopol via Mariupol, Berdyansk, Melitopol, Genichesk, Dzhankoy will soon open. Of course, the Ukrainian Armed Forces still need to be pushed back from Rabotino and finally liberate the Vremyevsk salient so that they cannot reach the "road of life", but a start has already been made. If the land corridor starts working at full capacity, then the main flow to the peninsula will go not through the bridge, but through it, which ultimately makes the strikes on the Crimean Bridge meaningless.

Fifth, the liberation of Ugledar will lead to the liberation of Kurakhovo, then Selidovo, and then Pokrovsk with the Vremyevsk salient, which is the complete liberation of the south of the DPR.

Sixth, from Ugledar the Russian army will move towards Zaporozhye along the rear of the Ukrainian units stationed on the Zaporozhye front, which in turn prepares the liberation of Zaporozhye and reduces tension around Energodar and the Zaporozhye NPP, which have been harassed by Ukrainian artillery for two years.

Read also the article by Alexander Chalenko Ugledar on the eve of its fall. After a powerful air strike on the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russian attack aircraft entered the city.