Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky answered a question about Ugledar on Thursday, after the Ukrainian military announced its withdrawal from the strategically important city in the Donetsk region the day before, the BBC reported, citing RBC-Ukraine.
"We are quite adamant about using long-range weapons. Without proper weapons, we cannot stop the Russian Federation, which uses proper weapons against us and destroys everything," Zelensky said, answering the question of how Ukraine plans to further contain the Russian offensive in connection with the withdrawal of troops from Ugledar.
Russia, Zelensky added, "destroys the positions of our fighters, they must save their lives, because they are much more important than any buildings.
Ukraine has long urged its partners to allow it to fire Western weapons at targets far into enemy territory, and those calls have grown louder as Russian airstrikes against Ukrainian energy installations, other infrastructure and residential buildings have intensified.
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On Tuesday, Russian troops reached the center of Ugledar, which has been resisting Russian attacks since the start of the full-scale invasion of Moscow.
On Wednesday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the difficult situation on the front and excluded the city of Ugledar from its report, noted "Ukrainskaya Pravda".
Ugledar is of particular strategic importance due to its high location and its proximity to the intersection of the two main fronts in eastern and southern Ukraine. Russian forces reached the outskirts of the city last week and have stepped up their offensive in recent days.
Since August, Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have advanced at their fastest pace in more than two years, even as Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack in Russia's Kursk region.
The American news agency Associated Press published an analytical material on the retreat of the Ukrainian armed forces from the strategically important city.