Ugledar was the Ukrainian stronghold in southern Donbass. For more than two years, the Ukrainians managed to hold him back. But after four bloody Russian offensives, the small mining town fell, writes NCC. This is a painful loss for Ukraine.
Ukraine lost the battle for the small town of Ugledar, which was turned into a Ukrainian fortress in the southern part of Donbass. This has been looming since September. And now it happened. Although there is still no official confirmation from Kiev, eyewitness accounts and images from reconnaissance drones leave no doubt that the city has been captured by Russian troops. Pictures released by Moscow propagandists show the Russian tricolor and the Soviet victory flag flying on several tall buildings in the mining town, which had a population of 14,000 before the war began.
The Swiss "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (NCC) quotes a Ukrainian non-commissioned officer who publishes information about what is happening on the front in Telegram - he writes that the defenders of the city have recently suffered heavy losses and were forced to withdraw on foot and in small groups. Apparently, due to the massive use of kamikaze drones by the Russians in the sky above Ugledar, it was not possible to send armored personnel carriers to the area of hostilities, with which the defenders of the city could be withdrawn from there, the publication specifies.
Abandoned Wounded Soldiers
The non-commissioned officer strongly criticized the delayed retreat, which doomed the wounded soldiers. In this regard, he recalls that the Russian military regularly commits war crimes against prisoners. For example, on Tuesday, a new video was released showing Russian soldiers shooting 16 captured Ukrainian soldiers in another part of the front in Donbass, NCC also writes.
Even before the final battle for Ugledar, this city had become a symbol of the enormous casualties and destruction caused by Russia's war against Ukraine. For two and a half years, the Kremlin has been trying to take over the mining town, which required four bloody offensives.
For the first time, the Ukrainians stopped the Russian advance there immediately after the invasion in February 2022. In the autumn of the same year, a second Russian offensive followed, which resonated strongly in the world media mainly because of the inadequate actions of the Russians: then Russian generals sent long columns of military vehicles through the Ukrainian minefields near Ugledar, which quickly became a graveyard for Russian tanks. Another similar action in January 2023 ended with the same devastating result, after which the commander of the Russian units there - Colonel General Rustam Muradov – parted with his post, the publication recalls. Thus Ugledar became a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.
Taken by the Russians on the fourth attempt
Before achieving their success at Ugledar, the Russians managed to capture the small town of Marjinka to the northeast - after equally heavy fighting. As a result, the situation in Ugledar began to deteriorate, because the danger no longer came only from the south, but also from the east. However, the Russians needed another nine months to surround the city from three sides and force its defenders to retreat, NCC also writes.
Ugledar is not of great strategic importance as a location, as no important transport routes pass through it and the road to the interior of the country is not automatically open to Moscow's troops. But the defeat is a serious blow for Ukraine, because it is saying goodbye to one of the symbols of the Ukrainian resistance.
Besides this symbolism, the fall of the city also has a purely military expression: 18 km east of Ugledar runs a railway line, which the Russian occupiers could not use for a long time due to the danger of Ukrainian shelling. Now they are getting a new route to supply their troops in the occupied Southern Donbass and the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung adds.
In addition, the city is a connecting link between the eastern and southern fronts of the war in Ukraine. Here, at an angle of almost 90 degrees, the two lines of defense meet. Now Russia will try to straighten the front line. Military observers suspect that this is precisely the main reason for the latest offensive, writes the NCC.