Russia starts storming Ukraine's Vuhledar, here's why control of strategic town matters

After two years of grinding war, Russia has now started storming the town of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine, according to military bloggers and Russian media.

The town of Vuhledar is critical for the control of the larger Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that it is located in. The final push for Vuhledar comes at a time when Russia has moved dangerously close to winning another strategic city of Povrovsk.

While pro-Russia military bloggers said Russian units have started storming Vuhledar, Russian Defence Ministry has said that its forces had defeated Ukrainian units at a series of settlements including Vuhledar, according to Reuters.

The news of Russian forces entering Vuhledar comes just one day after Ukrainian analysts said that Russia could capture within days. Open-source intelligence (OSINT) platform DeepState UA reported that Russian forces have effectively surrounded Vuhledar and cut off supply lines. Another Ukrainian military analyst, Ivan Stupak, told The Moscow Times that the situation was “difficult” and the town could fall “a matter of days” given “the pace of the advance”.

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How Russia overcame ‘fortress’ town of Vuhledar?

For more than two years, Russia has been battering Ukraine with artillery strikes and waves of ground assaults.

Along with waves after waves of ground assaults that went on for months, Russians also pressed in tanks and armoured vehicles in the assault. Then, instead of the regular ground troops, Russians are understood to have deployed squads of elite units to batter the city defences.

Meanwhile, one formation of the military, the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, continued to beat back all Russian assaults — until now.

After around two years, the brigade is now exhausted and lacks any meaningful support from other units in the region. As the brigade has been singlehandedly fighting non-stop for two years, the personnel are now exhausted and the Ukrainian failure to rotate the brigade or boost it with supporting units has led to a situation where the brigade is cornered and Vuhledar is surrounded.

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In its assessment on Monday, DeepState UA noted that the failure to rotate and replace the 72nd Mechanised Brigade and failure of auxiliary personnel deployed to assist the brigade to fend off the Russian assaults “significantly worsened” the situation.

As a result, the OSINT platform further said, the village of Prechistivka near Vuhledar fell and hastened the encircling to Vuhledar.

Vuhledar critical to controlling Donbas

The coal-rich town of Donetsk’s Vuhledar is critical to control eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

The town is situated on an elevated plain and is one of the few high-terrain spots in the region, which means that whoever controls the town is in a position to control or win the control over the supply lines in the region, according to VOA News.

The portal further reported that, considering the advantageous location of the town, Vuhledar is a launchpad to win the rest of the province.

For Ukraine, Vuhledar served as a launchpad for any future operation to win back the rest of Donbas region — Russia controls around 80 per cent of Donbas. For Russians, who appear set to win Vuhledar, the town is set to be a launchpad to mount assaults to win the rest of the Donbas region.

Maksym, the deputy commander of a infantry battalion at Maksym, told VOA previously that if Russians win Vuhledar, they can win the entire region.

“It’s one of the main logistics points of the Donbas region, and also one of the main points of elevation. By capturing Vuhledar, Russians can easily occupy the entire Donetsk region,” said Maksym.