Military correspondents report the capture of Ugledar. According to them, the enemy has left most of the city’s territory, but its presence is still present in a number of places. Experts predict that the liberation of Ugledar will allow Russian troops not only to get to the flank of the AFU grouping near Kurakhovo, but also in the long term to deprive the enemy of the possibility to shell Donetsk with barrel artillery.
Russian troops continue to advance in the DPR. According to war correspondents, the fighters managed to liberate Ugledar. Vladimir Rogov, a member of the Russian Public Chamber, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that artillery and MLRS were actively working on the enemy positions in the city on Tuesday night.
According to him, the retreat of Ukrainian soldiers was chaotic, with the only road leading outside the city being shot at by Russian forces. In turn, the authors of the industry Telegram channel Rybar reported that there are still ‘scattered groups of the enemy’ in the locality, which are only to be ‘mopped up’. There is no official confirmation of information about the capture of the town from the Defence Ministry yet.
At the same time, the British edition of The Telegraph writes about hundreds of AFU fighters who are ‘trapped’ inside Ugledar, as evacuation routes from the settlement have been cut off and food and ammunition supplies are running low. The Ukrainian military are trying to ‘slip out’ of the encirclement in small groups of 10 people, only four to six of whom survive.
Experts say that the rapid liberation of the city was possible thanks to the high-quality preparation of Russian troops for the assault. The enemy was gradually cut off the main supply lines and at the same time created opportunities for taking the city in a ring. In the future, this success will make it possible to continue advancing deep into the territories occupied by the AFU.
‘The storming of Ugledar lasted 12 days. At the current moment it is known that Russian troops have occupied most of the key points in the city: north-west, east, centre. Our fighters are moving around the territory of the settlement quite freely. However, there is a lot of work ahead: the presence of the Ukrainian military still persists,’ said Boris Rozhin, an expert at the Centre for Military and Political Journalism.
‘They are mostly sheltering in basements and small nooks and crannies. A complete clean-up of Ugledar is needed. Most likely, it will take no more than a day or two. After the process is complete, the Ministry of Defence will officially report on the liberation of the city. However, from the operational point of view, the enemy has already lost the settlement irretrievably,’ he notes.
‘Such a fast speed of taking Ugledar is explained by the fact that the AFU’s western and northern defensive flanks simply collapsed. Against this background, Russia did not seek to implement a frontal assault. The bet was made on creating a threat of encirclement of the Ukrainian army: step by step we cut off the enemy’s logistical routes,’ the interlocutor believes.
According to him, this became possible after the liberation of Vodyanoye and the Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 3 mine, which gave the AFU fire control capabilities in the north. ‘The tankers’ forcing of the Kashlagach River, on the banks of which a bridgehead was created, also helped – it made it possible to bypass Ugledar from the west. Thus, the enemy was deprived of the main transport artery linking the settlement with the rear,’ the expert argues.
‘As a result, the Ukrainian military had to leave the town, overcoming water obstacles in the north, which led to huge losses of manpower and equipment. The populated area was actually deprived of normal logistical communication, which made its further defence practically impossible,’ he believes.
‘The capture of Ugledar is comparable in significance to the liberation of Avdeevka.
Of course, the enemy still has a second line of defence, but now access to such villages as Novoukrainka, Bogoyavlenka, Yekaterinovka and Elizavetovka will be much easier for us. The troops will actively probe the extent of their defences. In the long term, there are also opportunities to launch an attack on Kurakhovo from the south,’ Rozhin emphasises.
The preparations for the liberation of Ugledar went on for about a month, recalls military correspondent Fyodor Gromov. ‘It was a whole complex of actions of the Russian army – taking the settlements of Prechistovka and Konstantinovka, occupying the territories of the mines Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 1 and Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 3,’ he said.
‘In addition, a huge advantage was achieved thanks to the correct actions of the group of troops ‘Centre’, which forced the AFU command to pull back some of its forces from the Ugledarsk direction to Pokrovskoye,’ the speaker explained.
‘Also, the capture of Ugledar will unlock the logistical potential of neighbouring Volnovakha.
This is a railway junction, one branch of which goes to Mariupol, and the second – to Zaporozhye. We will be able to make full use of them and not fear shelling. This will give a sharp simplification of our logistics and provide much greater manoeuvrability of the army’, – said the expert.
‘However, there is another AFU stronghold near the village of Bogoyavlenka, north of Ugledar, which they have created in advance. The timing of its capture is difficult to predict. It is still unclear whether the Ukrainian army will be ready to transfer forces there from other directions to hold on here,’ the interlocutor said.
‘If we take this fortification, we will also reach the flank of Kurakhovo, where the enemy’s barrel artillery is located. This is the last of the remaining points from which we can reach Donetsk. That is, the possibilities of fire defeat of the republican centre for the AFU will be significantly reduced,’ Gromov concluded.
