Retreat to save people and save materials - this is how the Ukrainian military argues its withdrawal from the eastern Ukrainian city of Ugledar, which for two and a half years Russian units have are trying to take over – with huge losses including for them. In this sense, the small mining town has long been a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance.
With its capture, the Russians now have the opportunity to increase their pressure on other sections of the front in Donbass, said the observer Denis Popovych to the Ukrainian media. The next defensive position of the Ukrainians is located 20 kilometers north of Ugledar Kurakhovo. Over the past 6 months, Russian units have advanced 30 kilometers on Ukrainian territory, ARD recalls in this regard.
Vitaly Kononuchenko, an analyst for the online media Dzerkalo Tyshnya, hopes for winter. He believes that the Russians will rush to advance even before the rainy season sets in, which could significantly slow them down.
Ukraine lacks weapons and soldiers
However, some Ukrainian bloggers criticize and accuse the Ukrainian military leadership of making mistakes in Ugledar. The fall of the former mining town shows the problems of the Ukrainian army throughout the eastern part of the country: Ukraine is in desperate need of soldiers and weapons.
The Ukrainian leadership hopes to fill the gaps with its own production. At a defense industry meeting in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more investment. In his words, since the beginning of the war, Ukraine has practically managed to build a new defense industry: “Only in the first half of this year, Ukraine produced 25 times more artillery ammunition than in the whole of 2022“