Russian forces start encircling Vuhledar from flanks

The Russian Armed Forces started to encircle the city of Vuhledar from flanks, "Idi I Smotri" ("Go and See”) Telegram channel reports.

Photo: мультимедиа.минобороны.рф by Константин Морозов (Konstantin Morozov), CC BY 4.0

According to the channel, the Russian army is advancing north of Vuhledar in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). If the Russian army continues the offensive, then taking control of the city will only be a matter of time.

The video shows Russian fighters landing on the territory of the Yuzhno-Donbasskaya No. 1 Mine.

The offensive tentatively started yesterday morning. Marines from the 155th Brigade were among the first to report the start of military operations for the city. Ukrainian Telegram channels later confirmed such reports.

Shortly before that, the Armed Forces of Ukraine started to redeploy military personnel to Selidovo, so they were unable to hold the first defense of the city.

The Yuzhno-Donbasskaya No. 1 Mine, where the fighters of the Russian Armed Forces landed, is located 2.5 km from the outskirts of Vuhledar (spelled the Russian way as Ugledar). According to military bloggers, the Russian troops are advancing against the backdrop of the withdrawal of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that had been defending the city for two years. Ukrainian Telegram channels said that the brigade was redirected to the Pokrovsk direction of hostilities.

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Vuhledar is a town in Volnovakha Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. At the beginning of 2022, its population was 14,144. Vuhledar is a coal mining city in the cultural and economic Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, with its origins in the 1960s development of the coal industry in the region. It was planned to be a major economic center, but failed to meet expectations, and has remained a minor economic node in the 21st century. Since March 2022, Vuhledar has been a site of fighting in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The fighting has almost completely destroyed and depopulated Vuhledar, with reportedly less than 500 civilians remaining in the city.