Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Wednesday, October 2, 2024, discover the latest news around this conflict.
kyiv withdrew its troops from Vouhledar in the face of Russian troops
The Ukrainian military command on Wednesday ordered its soldiers to withdraw from the town of Vouhledar in eastern Ukraine to avoid encirclement by soldiers.
“The high command gave permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Vouhledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and to take positions for further actions.the Ukrainian military command said in a statement.
Pro-Russian war bloggers and the Telegram channel SHOT previously reported the Russian army’s capture of the city. Russia did not mention this operation in its daily report. Russian channels published videos on Telegram of soldiers waving the Russian flag on destroyed buildings in this Ukrainian stronghold which has resisted Russia’s assaults since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russian newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets reported that the town of Vouhledar had finally fallen after Ukrainian forces from the famously resilient 72nd Mechanized Brigade abandoned the area on Tuesday. A Ukrainian official said Tuesday that Russian soldiers had reached the center of this city, strategically located between the eastern and southern fronts.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his ambition to capture this city, populated by 14,000 inhabitants before the war, because it is considered by the Russian authorities as a key step in incorporating the entire Donetsk region into Russia. The town of Vouhledar is also located near a railway line that connects Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrial Donbass region, made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, both controlled by Moscow.
Russian forces control 98.5% of the Luhansk region and 60% of the Donetsk region. Despite the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, which forced Russia to redeploy its troops, Russian forces in eastern Ukraine have advanced at their fastest pace in two years since August. They captured the Ukrainian town in mid-September then surrounded Vouhledar, trapping the Ukrainian forces.
Pro-Russian war bloggers estimate that Russia may now attempt to advance towards Velyka Novosilka, just over 30 km to the west.
Bombings in Kharkiv Oblast
This Tuesday, bombings caused casualties in the Kharkiv oblast, in eastern Ukraine.
In Kupiansk, a woman and an ambulance driver were injured in a bombing, according to the national police, which communicated on the Telegram network. “A civilian died following a bombing in the village of Kruhliakivka”added the police.
An investigation opened after the alleged execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners
kyiv announced this Tuesday that it was investigating the alleged execution of 16 prisoners of war by the Russian army near Pokrovsk, a city located in the east of the country, according to the Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s Office, cited by The World.
“This is the most massive known case of execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the front line. The killings and torture of prisoners are not an accident but a deliberate policy”declared Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin on Tuesday evening on X (ex-Twitter).
“We will identify and hold accountable these crimes, from the soldiers who commit these acts to those who issue criminal orders and shape Russia’s doctrine of violence and intimidation.”he continued.
Investigations are being carried out to “violation of the laws and customs of war”.
