Ukraine has been defending the frontline city of Vuhledar ever since the start of Russia’s full-scale war of aggression in February 2022.
But this week, Ukraine’s eastern military command announced that it had ordered its troops to withdraw from the city to avoid being encircled.
Russian military bloggers have published videos showing soldiers standing on the roofs of what were once apartment buildings and waving flags.
TV4 Nyheterna has geolocated the clips for Vuhledar, but we cannot say with precision the date when they were filmed.
A city in ruins
Before the war, Vuhledar had over 14,000 inhabitants, but today the town is in ruins. Ukraine’s president defends the decision to leave the city, which he says was necessary to save the soldiers’ lives.
– They are more important than some buildings, Zelenskyy said at a press conference where he appeared together with NATO’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Vuhledar is about five miles from the occupied city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The city is high up on two major roads and close to railway lines and the Russians capturing it will therefore make it easier for them to advance deeper behind Ukrainian defense lines.
In his speech, Zelenskyy once again took the opportunity to call on the West to speed up the delivery of weapons so that Ukraine can defend itself against the Russian aggressors.