Russia Makes Gains Near ‘Fortress’ Vuhledar as Its Donbas Offensive Rolls On

Russia’s capture of a tactically important coal mine near the city Vuhledar was widely confirmed as Moscow’s relentless offensive backed by massive firepower supporting its frontal attack kept on rolling westward, news reports from both sides said on Tuesday.

Russian milbloggers were the first to publish images of a Russian Federation flag flying from atop a tower at the South Donbas Coal Mine Number One, some seven kilometers north-east of Vuhledar city as Russian media reported the capture and a two to three kilometer advance by Russian forces.

Ukrainian sources claimed battles around the plant were still in progress and that Russian forces attempting to maneuver were under heavy fire. A public information site associated with Ukraine’s 46th Air Assault Brigade said on Tuesday that combat was in progress seeking control of the outlying fortified village of Vodyane to the north of the coal mine. After saying that Russian patrols had penetrated to the main Ukrainian trench and bunker network to the east of Vuhledar, it reported they were then forced back by Ukrainian drone and artillery strikes.

Ukrainian army statements on Tuesday said defenses around Vuhledar were intact and holding under heavy enemy pressure, without providing details.

Ukrainian civilian social media channels such as Pokrovsk.Novosti reported Russian forces had captured Vodyane and were attempting to bypass Vuhledar to the north. Video published by the pro-Russia mil-blogger VoinDV on Tuesday showed an infantryman waving a Russian flag atop a building geo-located to Vodyane.

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After months of relative calm around Vuhledar, Russian forces kicked off repeated attacks in late August aimed at capturing the heavily fortified industrial city. Russian progress has been slow but continuous, backed by large scale artillery and air strikes ahead of infantry that, despite taking heavy losses managing to grab short-range objectives.

Russian infantry assaults around and inside the coal mine and possible Ukrainian retreats from there were first reported on Sept. 2.  Led by the veteran 72nd Mechanized Brigade, Ukrainian forces had defended the key outpost building and improving powerful fortifications in and around Vuhledar, since March 2022.

The Ukrainian army daily situation report on Tuesday said further equally intense Russian assaults were taking place north of Vuhledar along the N15 highway towards the city of Kurakhove, a regional logistics hub for Ukrainian forces. 

According to the Ukrainian statement by the Army General Staff (AGS), its forces along the highway were under heavy pressure but had lost no ground. Ukraine’s Ministry of Emergency Situations (UMES) reported Russian shell strikes hitting civilian buildings in Kurahove early on Tuesday morning.

The Ukrainian high command also reported heavy Russian assaults at a third location, along the major Donbas M04 highway to the east of the industrial city of Pokrovsk. Russian forces began attacks on Pokrovsk in April. On Monday, the epicenter of Russian attacks in that sector was targeting the villages of Selydove and Mykhailivka, around 14 kilometers to the east of the city.  Russian unidentified munitionsstruck and damaged a Pokrovsk coal mine, the local information platform Pokrovsk.news reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry’s Tuesday situation report confirmed that itsforces were attacking in the Kurakhove, Pokrovsk and Vuhledar sectors. According to the statement, they had inflicted heavy losses on Ukrainian defenders at all locations and had gained ground along all three axes. It said that combat units from two major Russian army formations - Joint Forces Center and Joint Forces South – were spearheading the assaults.

Official statements from both the Ukrainian and Russian armies confirmed on Monday that almost two thirds of ground fighting and artillery strikes took place in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

Evacuation of residents from Pokrovsk was in progress, with over 300 transported from their homes on Monday, a UMES press release said. Some 75,000 people lived in Pokrovsk prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but only 30,000 to 35,000 are still resident many too infirm or poor to leave on their own.

Russian milbloggers followed by Russian Defense Ministry official statements over the weekend claimed Kyiv was shifting substantial reinforcements to Ukraine’s threatened eastern Donbas sector, led by five newly-trained national guard brigades and at least three seasoned regular army combat brigades. Information on ongoing operations by the Ukraine army is a military secret.

According to a statement published by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s official Telegram channel late on Monday, he discussed the operational situation in east Ukraine with the army commander General Oleksandr Syrsky “in detail.” A battle of attrition is in progress and Ukraine’s defenses will hold, Zelensky said.

“Today there I received a detailed purely military report from the Chief of Staff of Syrsky. The priority subject was sectors around the Donetsk region. I give thanks to all our units at the front, who are carrying out their missions and are really steadfastly repelling Russian assaults and [counterattacking] to restore our positions,” he said. “The Pokrovsk sector and the Kurakhove sector - that is where the Russian army must lose as much combat power as possible.”