After Bakhmout and Soledar, it is the city of Vougledar, in the south-east of Ukraine, which has become the site of fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Moscow is already announcing its forthcoming victory, contested by kyiv.
Ukrainian troops are engaged in a “fierce” confrontation with Russian forces trying to seize Vougledar, southwest of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine where fighting has intensified in recent days.
“Soon Vougledar could become a very important new success for us,” said Denis Pushilin, head of the Moscow-appointed Donetsk region, on Friday.
Both sides have claimed victory, but the city remains contested, according to Kyiv. The spokesman for the Ukrainian army for the eastern zone, Serguiy Tcherevaty, confirmed “fierce fighting”, while ensuring that the Russians had been repelled.
“brutal” clashes
150 kilometers from Bakhmout, this mining town which had 15,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion, “serious, brutal” clashes have been taking place for several days. Russian troops have “established themselves in the south-east and east of the city”, said an official of the pro-Russian authorities in the eastern region of Donetsk, Ian Gagin.
“The enemy is indeed seeking to achieve success in this sector but they are not achieving it thanks to the efforts of the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” he said on television. “The enemy exaggerates, and this is an understatement, its success”, he continued, concluding: “in the face of its losses, the enemy retreats”.
“The encirclement and future liberation” of this locality will “change the balance of power on the front” by paving the way for an offensive towards Pokrovsk and Kurakhové, localities located further north, judged the leader of separatists from Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.
Towards a major attack on February 24?
Ukraine said this week that outnumbered Russian troops had stepped up their attacks in the east, particularly on Vougledar and Bakhmout, the latter of which had been their target for months.
And a new Russian offensive is in preparation for February 24, a year to the day after Russia invaded Ukraine, assured Oleksii Danilov, secretary of the Council of Defense and National Security of Ukraine.
“They are now preparing for maximum activation (…) and they think they will have some successes by the anniversary date,” he said on Radio Svoboda. This new offensive wave in preparation for February 24 “is not a secret”, he added.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, Russia is seeking to “disperse” Ukrainian forces in order to “create the conditions for a decisive offensive operation”.
Capture of Soledar by the Russians
Russian soldiers and men from the paramilitary group Wagner recently captured Soledar, north of Bakhmout, a first success in many months and a series of setbacks for the Kremlin.
Also in the east, in Chassiv Iar, two people were killed on Friday and at least five injured in Russian artillery fire, local authorities said.
Further north, in the Kharkiv region, the shelling of the village of Dvoritchna left two other dead, announced the Ukrainian presidency. The southern city of Kherson was also targeted by Russian shells, according to the same source.
Russia has mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists and convicts to try to break through Ukrainian lines and conquer the rest of Donbass, a vast industrial zone in eastern Ukraine.
