Russia takes Vuhledar, protecting supply line; Ukraine closes firepower gap

Ukraine will produce two million drones this year and at least four million next year, while allies open joint ventures.

Russia has captured Vuhledar on the Donetsk-Zaporizhia border this week after battling for the village for 18 months.

Vuhledar sits on elevated ground near a railway line that brings in supplies from Russian-occupied Crimea. Its occupation deprives Ukrainian forces of a way to interrupt Russian supply lines.

It also gives Russia control of the adjacent H-15 highway, which may help it to “eliminate the wide Ukrainian salient in western Donetsk Oblast,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank.

Ukraine pushed Russian positions back in a crescent-shaped area by as much as 7.5km (5 miles) during a counteroffensive last year. That gain may now be imperilled. Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii ordered defences strengthened in Donetsk after the loss of Vuhledar.

“The Russian seizure of Vuhledar will not on its own radically change the operational situation in western Donetsk Oblast, however, and Russian forces will likely struggle to achieve their operational objectives,” said the ISW.