Russian forces captured the Ukrainian town of Ukrainsk in the eastern Donetsk region on Tuesday as they advanced westwards in a bid to take the whole of the Donbas, Russian state-run RIA news agency and pro-Russian war bloggers reported.
Russian troops raised their flag on a mine ventilation shaft on the outskirts of the town, which had a population of over 10,000 people before the war, RIA said, citing an unidentified source in the Russian military.
"Ukrainsk is ours," said Yuri Podolyaka, an Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, adding that Russian forces had taken the city "almost intact" allowing them to use it as a base for further offensive operations.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian or Ukrainian defense ministries. Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield claims from either side due to reporting restrictions in the war zone.
Russian forces had encircled Ukrainsk earlier this month as they advanced westwards towards Pokrovsk, part of what President Vladimir Putin says is a primary goal to take all of the Donbas region which has an area about half the size of the U.S. state of Ohio.
Podolyaka said that Hirnyk, a town to the south with a pre-war population of over 10,000, and Selydove, a town to the north with a pre-war population of over 20,000, were the next targets.
Since Russia sent its army into Ukraine in February 2022, the war has largely been a story of grinding artillery and drone strikes along a heavily fortified 1,000-km (620-mile) front involving hundreds of thousands of soldiers.
Russia in August advanced at its fastest monthly pace in two years, according to open source maps, though Ukraine also took a chunk of Russia's Kursk region in a surprise Aug. 6 incursion.
Russian forces, which have taken about a fifth of Ukraine, control 98.5% of the Luhansk region and 60% of the Donetsk region, according to the same sources.
Together, the two regions make up the Donbas, which is the cradle of the war. After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian protests broke out in parts of the Donbas, where Moscow began supporting separatist forces.
Russia said on Tuesday it had repelled five new attempts by Ukrainian forces to smash through its border into the Kursk region, bringing the total number of reported attacks on the border to 26 in just the past six days.
The number of Ukrainians and Russians killed or wounded in the war has reached roughly one million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
© Thomson Reuters 2024.
24 Comments
Banthu
He was born in Ukraine and has Ukrainian citizenship and he's fighting against Zelensky's forces.
Ukraine is a civil war.
The lightning speed in which the East Ukrainian and Russian forces took Ukrainsk is indeed incredible.
Zelensky's army basically just ran away in panic.
JJE
Interesting article because it is quite up to date. Check the map/s.
Ukrainsk has indeed fallen to RFAF. Hirnyk and Selydove are also indeed next on the menu in that local sector. With the latter the Russians control the mine complex directly to the NE - which means the high ground - and hold positions in suburbs there, so the operational pause is likely to come to an end there. Important also because it is the last city of any significance SSE of Pokrovsk, with just small settlements remaining between the two.
Back to Ukrainsk which is on the south side of the overall Russian salient pointing towards Pokrovsk. There are two cauldrons, the larger one on the direct south side, and Hirnyk is the next logical step to slamming it shut.
The next immediate Russian objective is to straighten the line from Vuhledar-Kurakhove-Selydove while continuing with envelopment of Pokrovsk, which sits at the northern end of said line. Center and South groups are playing it safe and wrapping up pockets that could potentially allow a counterattack on the flanks, while implementing a more sensible frontline in the south Donetsk sector overall.
All in all, well covered.
TaiwanIsNotChina
It's a long to Kyiv and Russia has no plan how they will not incur the same level of body bags from the last time they tried to take that city.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I'm sure the Donbas residents are sturdy people, but they are unlikely to have fielded hundreds of thousands of soldiers, millions of rounds of shells, and Su-57s.
JJE
Podolyaka is quite "plugged in" when it comes to overall developments on the Eastern Front. Also relevant to note, the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, which is prosecuting the Pokrovsk offensive (formerly 8th RCAA, but given Guards designation last month by Mr. Putin himself) has a substantial component of DPR-Donbass forces (i.e. former Ukrainians).
As mentioned in the article, Podolyaka is Ukrainian by birth but has supported the Donbass in the struggle against Kyiv since Day Dot. Which, as said above, is indicative of the civil war-style nature of this conflict, which has its origins in events of 2014.
JJE
Important to clarify this:
The first point is correct, with Russia steadily advancing and bulging out that large salient angled at Pokrosk. And August was a consequential month, with some towns falling intact.
The second point of the Kursk incursion is a bit of a red herring. Apart from the failed seizure of KNPP, high casualties, failure to shift fighting from the Eastern Front (read above) and non-strategic nature of the terrain, no serious analyst expects them to hold the pocket for any length of relevant time. And indeed, it is being wrapped up now in a large combined arms operation.
JJE
Reading a bit more about the fall of Ukrainsk - looks very likely an immediate push further west will happen to the railroad junction of Tsukuryne which lies only 4 clicks away, complicating supply to Hirnyk and many other places in the south Donetsk sector in general.
Interesting stuff. Someone has clearly got a gameplan.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Clearly not Putin as he has united and enlarged NATO and turned Russia into a pariah for a generation.
JJE
Important to clarify that Yanukovich was a democratically elected president, illegally toppled in a western-backed coup. This triggered everything that followed.
Relevant also to keep in mind the US has a long and sordid history of funding separatist forces to destabilize countries it doesn't like. Think of Syria, Libya, Serbia - and that is the tip of the iceberg. Moscow is levelling the playing field, employing the same tricks and they don't like it.
Eastmann
ok1514
is that how Ukraine prevails?
I have expected that Kiev junta forces are marching at Red Square already.with all of western taxpayers money,NATO wunderwaffen and related media propaganda?
JJE
Refreshing to see an article that is actually on a very even keel for a change.
It establishes a current event, confirms it from multiple sources and inserts it into the overall context of the wider conflict in a reasonable way.
And it does so from a non-partisan way, indicative of what fair journalism should be.
Too much 'reporting' has allowed one side to pump smoke through a transparent trumpet and produce a misleading, distorted view of events, that are not challenged or even verified.
Hope to read more like it.
Blacklabel
Now we are hearing that 70% of the money/weapons given to Ukraine never even made it to the front lines. Corruption kills.
Zelensky only hope is to hold on another 7 weeks so Trump can come negotiate an end to this war.
Eastmann
Ukraine as we knew is gone and done for good.
stormcrow
Captured sounds better than invaded, doesn’t it?
burgers and beers
TaiwanIsNotChinaToday 07:18 am JST
It's a long to Kyiv and Russia has no plan how they will not incur the same level of body bags from the last time they tried to take that city.
New cope?
burgers and beers
Putin has united and enlarged NATO so it can do better in the next conflict they get involved in whilst turning Russia into a pariah. Cool. Have you thanked Putin for that yet?
burgers and beers
The wise one will be along shortly to tell us all it was not a coup.
TokyoLiving
One step nearer to liberate Prokrovsk and kiyv regime is finished..
TokyoLiving
https://media1.tenor.com/m/lirAMlHkR5YAAAAC/tantrum-throwing-a-fit.gif
LOOOOOL
TokyoLiving
Let me guess..
"Ukraine prevails"
https://giphy.com/gifs/chicken-bro-WO69ltlJZp0ZwI98kN
TaiwanIsNotChina
Ukraine is going strong and independent and will remain so unless you've got a considerable number of your countrymen lined up for some slaughter.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Do you think a general will march on Kyiv? Here's a hint: democracies are not weak like your birth country.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Nothing is more illegal than Russia's invasion. Yes, the Russian invasions triggered everything.
Funding is legal. Supplying weapons is legal. Invading like your 13th century ancestors is not.
burgers and beers
Ukraine is going strong and independent and will remain so unless you've got a considerable number of your countrymen lined up for some slaughter.
Do you think UAF is winning? Most analysts are saying Russians are on the offensive and UAF frontline defences are crumbling.