A “fierce” battle is underway for Vougledar, a town in eastern Ukraine, which Russian forces are trying to conquer, both sides said on Friday, with Kyiv saying Moscow “exaggerated” the success of its offensive.
The head of Russia’s occupation of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said overnight “good news is to be expected” from Vougledar, a mining town that numbered 15,000 before the Russian invasion.
“The upcoming siege and liberation of the city will solve some things,” he told the Ria Novosti news agency, stressing that a victory “would change the balance of power at the front” by opening the way for an offensive towards the towns of Pokrovsk and Kourakhové. located further north.
One of his advisers, Ian Gagine, told the Tass news agency on Friday that “serious and brutal fighting” was taking place and that Russian forces had “established themselves in the southeast and east of the city.”
The spokesman for the Ukrainian army for the eastern zone, Serguiï Tcherevaty, for his part, confirmed “fierce fighting”, but assured that the Russians were repelled.
“The enemy is trying to achieve success in this sector, but he is not succeeding thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian Defense Forces,” he said on television.
“The enemy exaggerates, to put it mildly, his success,” he added: “in the face of his losses, the enemy retreats.”
fight escalation
Ukraine said this week that the outnumbered Russian army had intensified its attacks in the east, including on Vougledar and Bakhmout, the latter of which has been a Russian target for months despite heavy casualties.
Russian forces and troops from the Wagner paramilitary group recently captured Soledar, a town north of Bakhmout, a first success in many months and a series of humiliating setbacks for the Kremlin.
Russia has mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists and convicts in an attempt to break through the Ukrainian lines and conquer the rest of the Ukrainian Donbass.
Kyiv says that it inflicts heavy losses on the Russians, but notes that their superior numbers make the fight particularly difficult.
Ukraine and Russia are preparing, according to observers, offensives at the end of winter or spring to try to achieve victories that they hope will be decisive for the outcome of the war.
Source: BFM TV
