Ukraine Withdraws From Vuhledar, Town Long Under Russian Attack

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday that it was ordering the last of its forces to retreat from the ruins of Vuhledar, a mining town that had served as a vital defensive bastion for nearly three years in eastern Ukraine, after it was stormed by Russian troops.

Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Vuhledar said they had already been largely forced out, and combat footage geolocated by military analysts showed Russian forces in nearly every corner of the town on Tuesday.

A colonel in a Ukrainian evacuation unit, Artem Shchus, estimated last week that there were around 50 people still trapped in Vuhledar, a fraction of the 14,000 who once lived there. It was not clear on Wednesday how many people remained, nor if all the Ukrainian soldiers who had been defending the town had managed to escape.

The Ukrainian eastern military command said it was issuing the formal order to retreat because of “a threat of encirclement.”

The loss of Vuhledar will complicate the defense of the southwestern part of the Donetsk region, allowing the Russians to step up attacks in the direction of Pokrovsk, a rail and road hub, soldiers and military analysts said. Pokrovsk is also a gateway to the economically important Dnipro region.

Taking Vuhledar is also likely to ease pressure on Russia’s supply lines across southern Ukraine to Crimea, by pushing Ukrainian forces further from critical Russian rail and road links in occupied territory.

Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the exiled Ukrainian government of Mariupol, a port city in eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia, said on Wednesday that holding the town would allow the Russians to restore their logistics in southern Ukraine. This would include “the systematic operation of the railroad” running from Russia to Mariupol’s port, he said.

The capture of Vuhledar also opens up some areas in the region that will be difficult to defend against Russian attack, Ukrainian soldiers said.

The villages to the town’s north and west are generally dotted with small homes and there are few significant geographic barriers like rivers or ravines for miles.

Vuhledar sits at the nexus of the southern and eastern fronts and the Ukrainian military warned on Wednesday that there were already indications Russia was preparing to exploit its gains.

Vladyslav Voloshyn, the spokesman for the Southern military command, told Radio Liberty on Wednesday that Russia was concentrating forces to assault the villages west of Vuhledar in an attempt to undermine Ukrainian supply lines.

“Today, the enemy is trying to concentrate forces and means to conduct assault operations,” he said.