After fighting for the town for eighteen months, Russia finally took control of Vuhledar this week on the border between Donetsk and Zaporia. Situated on a raised area, Vuhledar is close to a railway line that provides supplies from the Russian-occupied Crimea. Because of its takeover, Ukrainian forces are unable to cut off Russian supply routes.
Additionally, it grants Russia control over the nearby H-15 highway, which might aid in its efforts to “eliminate the wide Ukrainian salient in western Donetsk Oblast,” according to the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War. During a counteroffensive last year, Ukraine managed to drive Russian troops back by as much as 7.5 km (5 miles) in a crescent-shaped territory.
That benefit could now be in jeopardy. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii ordered defences bolstered in Donetsk after the loss of Vuhledar.
The ISW stated that “Russian forces will probably struggle to achieve their operational objectives,” adding that “the Russian seizure of Vuhledar will not on its own drastically change the operational situation in western Donetsk Oblast.”
Since February, when it captured Avdiivka, it has pushed 35km (22 miles) west towards Pokrovsk, but Syrskii said Ukraine’s counter-invasion of Kursk in August has put a stop to that advance 10km (6 miles) shy of Pokrovsk.
Russian soldiers have been advancing on the town of Chasiv Yar for the entire summer, around 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the Pokrovsk frontline, although they have only been able to take control of the town’s eastern perimeter thus far. Attempts to capture Siversk, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Chasiv Yar, have been met with failure by Russian forces.
On September 26, Russia launched a battalion-sized assault in the direction of Kupyansk with 50 armored vehicles and tanks in Kharkiv, some 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of Siversk. Forty of the vehicles were destroyed or damaged in the repulsion by Ukraine.