War in Ukraine: Russians seize Vouhledar, bombings in Kharkiv, prisoners executed… an update on the situation

Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Wednesday, October 2, 2024, discover the latest news about this conflict.

kyiv withdrew its troops from Vouhledar in the face of Russian troops

The Ukrainian military command ordered its soldiers on Wednesday to withdraw from the city of Vouhledar, in eastern Ukraine, to avoid being surrounded by soldiers.

"The high command gave permission to conduct a maneuver to withdraw units from Vouhledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and to take up positions for further actions,”, the Ukrainian military command said in a statement.

Pro-Russian war bloggers and the Telegram channel SHOT had previously reported the capture of the city by the Russian army. 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 that has resisted Russian assaults since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian newspaper Moskovski Komsomolets reported that the town of Vouhledar had finally fallen after Ukrainian forces from the notorious 72nd Mechanized Brigade abandoned the area on Tuesday. A Ukrainian official said on Tuesday that Russian troops had reached the center of the town, which is strategically located between the eastern and southern fronts.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled his ambition to capture the town, which had a pre-war population of 14,000, as it is seen by Russian authorities as a key step toward 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 the Ukrainian industrial region of Donbass, 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 city in mid-September and then surrounded Vouhledar, trapping Ukrainian forces.

Pro-Russian war bloggers believe that Russia could now try to advance towards Velyka Novosilka, just over 30 km to the west.

Bombings in Kharkiv Oblast

On Tuesday, bombings caused casualties in Kharkiv Oblast, in eastern Ukraine. Ukraine.

In Kupiansk, a woman and an ambulance driver were injured in a shelling, according to the national police, which reported on the Telegram network. "A civilian died as a result of a shelling in the village of Krouhliakivka", the police added.

Investigation opened after the alleged execution of 16 Ukrainian prisoners

kyiv announced on 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 Prosecutor General's Office, quoted by Le Monde.

“This is the largest 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,”, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said on X (ex-Twitter) on Tuesday evening.

“We will identify and hold accountable for these crimes, from the soldiers who commit these acts even those who give criminal orders and shape the Russian doctrine of violence and intimidation", he continued.

Investigations are being conducted for "violation of the laws and customs of war".