Ukrainian forces have “abandoned” key positions near the town of Selydove in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reported on Oct. 7, citing official Russian “defense circles.”
“In Tsukuryne, the enemy has abandoned positions that have been of special importance both for this community and ... for Selydove,” the news agency quoted an unnamed Russian military source as saying.
Tsukuryne is a small settlement located roughly five miles south of Selydove.
The Epoch Times could not independently verify the source’s assertion, which came four days after Moscow announced the capture of the town of Vuhledar, roughly 25 miles south of Selydove.
Last week, Ukraine’s military confirmed the withdrawal of its troops from Vuhledar (Ugledar in Russian) to “preserve personnel and military equipment.”
The fall of Vuhledar, a strategically located coal-mining town, was only the latest in a string of recent Russian breakthroughs along Donetsk’s approximately 100-mile-long front line.
In mid-September, Russian forces captured the town of Ukrainsk to the immediate southeast of Tsukuryne and Selydove.
Since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, full control of the eastern Donbas region, comprising Donetsk and Luhansk, has remained a key Russian objective.
According to estimates cited by Reuters, Russian forces currently hold 60 percent of Donetsk and 98.5 percent of Luhansk.
They now appear poised to capture Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian transit hub located roughly 50 miles north of Vuhledar.
Selydove and the nearby Tsukuryne settlement sit at the approximate midway point between Vuhledar and Pokrovsk.
Last week, Ukrainian officials said about 80 percent of Pokrovk’s critical energy infrastructure had been disabled or destroyed by repeated Russian assaults.
“The enemy is leaving us without power, without water, without gas,” Serhiy Dobriak, head of Pokrovsk’s Kyiv-appointed military administration, said in televised remarks.
He said Russian forces currently stand about four miles east of the town, which lies at the intersection of several vital road and railway lines.
According to Dobriak, roughly 13,000 residents remain in the town, which had a pre-war population of some 60,000.
Moscow says it uses precision weapons to avoid killing civilians, claiming that all strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure serve a purely military function.
Airbase Attacked: Kyiv
On the morning of Oct. 7, officials in Kyiv said a Russian hypersonic missile had struck an area near the Starokostiantyniv airbase in Ukraine’s western Khmelnytskyi region.The Ukrainian Air Force, which rarely discloses damage to military targets, refrained from saying whether the alleged strike had damaged the airbase.
However, according to Serhiy Tyurin, Khmelnytskyi’s regional governor, the strike did not damage any critical infrastructure or cause civilian casualties.
A day before the alleged attack, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans announced that his country planned to provide Ukraine with a fresh batch of F-16 fighter jets.
During a visit to Kyiv on Oct. 6, Brekelmans also said that the Netherlands would invest 400 million euros (about $440 million) in the production of advanced combat drones in Ukraine.
According to the Dutch defense minister, an earlier consignment of F-16s is already operating in the skies over Ukraine. The next batch, he said, would be delivered to Kyiv in “upcoming months” or early next year.
Kyiv keeps the location of its military aircraft a well-guarded secret to protect them from Russian long-range missile strikes.
The reported Russian strike near the airbase was preceded by a drone and missile attack on targets in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian military officials.
In the early hours of Oct. 7, Ukrainian air defenses downed two Russian Kinzhal ballistic missiles over the capital, officials said, and falling debris did not result in any casualties or significant material damage.
Russia’s defense ministry has yet to confirm either missile attack, which The Epoch Times could not independently verify.
