Russian forces are honing in on central Vuhledar, a strategically located mining town in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, Donetsk’s Kyiv-appointed governor has said.
“The enemy is already nearly in the center of the city,” regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said in televised comments on Oct. 1.
His remarks coincide with video footage shared on social media that appears to show Russian soldiers raising the Russian flag over several buildings in Vuhledar (Ugledar in Russian).
In comments to Reuters, Andriy Nazarenko, commander of a Ukrainian drone battalion still deployed in Vuhledar, described the battlefield situation as “very difficult.”
On Oct. 2, Ukraine’s eastern military command announced that it had ordered its troops to withdraw from Vuhledar to avoid encirclement by Russian forces and “preserve personnel and military equipment.”
As of publication, however, the Russian Defense Ministry had not yet confirmed the town’s capture.
Nevertheless, Russia’s TASS news agency—citing an unnamed military source—reported on Oct. 1 that Ukrainian forces had “been forced to abandon positions in the central part” of the town.
On Oct. 2, TASS quoted a military source as saying that Ukrainian forces in Vuhledar had “been eliminated” after sustaining “heavy losses.”
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the Russian claims.
Located some 40 miles southwest of Donetsk city, Vuhledar is a mining town and logistics hub with a pre-war population of roughly 15,000.
It sits near a railway line linking Donbas to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow effectively annexed in 2014 and which now hosts Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
The town is strategically important as it sits at the junction of the ongoing conflict’s eastern and southern fronts.
If the fall of Vuhledar is confirmed, it would likely pave the way for further Russian advances to both the north and the west.
It would also put Moscow one step closer to bringing the entire Donbas region—comprising Donetsk and Luhansk—under Russian control.
Full control of the Russian-speaking Donbas region has remained one of Moscow’s key objectives since it launched its invasion of eastern Ukraine in early 2022.
Seven months after the initial invasion, Russia effectively annexed Donetsk and Luhansk, along with two other regions of southeastern Ukraine, and now considers them Russian Federation territory.
With the support of its Western backers, Kyiv has vowed to recover the four lost territories, along with the Black Sea region of Crimea.
According to estimates, Russian forces are now in control of 60 percent of the Donetsk region and 98.5 percent of Luhansk.
Rapid Advance
For the past two months, swiftly advancing Russian forces have continued to register gains in Donbas, recently capturing a string of towns and villages.A surprise Ukrainian cross-border offensive into Russia’s western Kursk region, launched in early August, largely failed to slow the Russian advance.
Earlier this week, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that its forces had captured the town of Makiivka in Luhansk.
Days earlier, Russian forces in Donetsk overran the town of Ukrainsk, which sits roughly 30 miles north of Vuhledar.
They now appear poised to take the town of Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian transit and logistics hub located 50 miles north of Vuhledar.
On Sept. 9, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that its forces had captured the village of Memryk 15 miles southeast of Pokrovsk.
The following day, four other villages in the vicinity—Krasnohorivka, Hryhorivka, Vodiane, and Halytsynivka—were also captured by Russian forces, according to the defense ministry.
