Russian troops are in complete control of the town of Vuhledar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region that has resisted Russian assaults for more than two years, the SHOT Telegram channel and pro-Russian war bloggers said on Wednesday.

Here are some key points about the town and the battle.

Vuhledar – which means “gift of coal” – is a coal mining town in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region with a pre-war population of around 14,000 people, nearly all of whom have fled. It was built by the Soviet Union in the mid 1960s around a mine. There are two mines there now with significant coal reserves. Russians call the town, which sits on a flat plain and is comprised of high-rise apartment buildings and other structures, Ugledar.

Moscow says the Donetsk region is one of four Ukrainian regions it has annexed since 2022, a claim Kyiv rejects as illegal. Moscow saw taking control of Vuhledar as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia.

Control of the town – which Russians long regarded as one of Ukraine’s toughest fortified positions to crack – is considered important by both sides because of its position on elevated ground and because it sits at the intersection of the eastern and southern battlefield fronts giving it added significance when it comes to supplying both sides’ forces.

While Ukrainian forces were in full control of Vuhledar, they were able to use the town as a platform to shell Russian military supply lines in the area.

The town sits close to a railway line from Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, to Ukraine’s industrialised Donbas region which comprises Donetsk and the eastern region of Luhansk, most of which Moscow controls.

Taking Vuhledar, which Russia portrays as one of the last Ukrainian strongholds in southern Donetsk, opens the way for Russian forces to advance on other places.

Russian forces trapped Ukrainian soldiers in the town in what they called a mini-cauldron, gradually encircling it from all sides and thus making it increasingly difficult for Ukrainian forces to resupply or rotate in and out of the town. When such a cauldron closes, something Russian military bloggers say has already happened, there is no way in or out for the defenders who in this case were bombarded with devastating aerial glide bombs.

Russian forces had previously launched at least four major attempts to take Vuhledar, but had been repelled with Ukraine’s 72nd Separate Mechanised Brigade mounting fierce resistance. Neither side discloses losses, but Ukrainian officials said Russian losses sustained during previous failed attempts to take the town had been significant. Moscow says Ukraine also paid a high human price when trying to retain Vuhledar.

Fierce fighting since 2022 has left much of the town devastated. Images of Russian forces waving their flag on the roof of an administrative building on Tuesday in the centre showed a structure which had been reduced to rubble in parts and whose blackened windows had all been blown out.

Maksym Verbovsky, the town’s deputy mayor, told Ukrainian state media last year that every single building had been damaged along with the entire infrastructure. He said then that fewer than 500 civilians, including three children and many pensioners, remained. All children and most adults have since been evacuated.

(Reuters)

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20241002-the-significance-behind-russia-s-capture-of-ukrainian-stronghold-of-vuhledar

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

French President Emmanuel Macron earlier urged Israel to stop its military operation in Lebanon, reaffirming France's commitment to United Nations Interim Force in this Middle Eastern country.

Commenting on Paris helping Israel against Iran and supporting Lebanon at the same time, retired French army colonel, Alain Corvez, told Sputnik that it’s a "terrible" situation as there is "no normal diplomacy" in France.

"We [France] have lost our sovereignty. We don't decide. The decisions are not taken in Paris. They are decisions which have been elaborated in Brussels and Brussels is the bridge to Washington. We have adopted all the strategic thinking of the US," Corvez, international strategy and international relations consultant of the French defense and interior ministries, said.

France doesn’t pursue a sovereign policy, focusing instead on supporting the policy of the US and Israel, he added. According to Corvez, the policy of France is "now completely aligned with American policy." 

"We have to recover our sovereignty of decisions. […] It's a shame. Each time [French President Emmanuel] Macron is going to Beirut, to Lebanon, he is the envoy of Washington. He's not officially the envoy, but the Lebanese political parties know that he's coming to support Israel’s and Washington's policy," the expert concluded.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20241003/frances-policy-completely-aligned-with-the-us---analyst-1120395580.html

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Russia is currently France’s main adversary, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in a recent interview with Le Point magazine. 

In a conversation published on Wednesday, which marked the release of Lecornu’s new book, he spoke about security challenges that Paris faces today.

Asked which country or actor posed “the greatest threat to France,” Lecornu replied: “Apart from terrorist groups, clearly it is the Russian Federation.”

He claimed that Moscow has been “even more aggressive” this year than it was in 2022 and 2023. Russia poses a threat “not only to our interests in Africa, but also directly to our Armed Forces,” the minister said, adding that “the Russian air traffic control has threatened to shoot down a French Rafale patrol.” 

Lecornu went on to accuse Russia of “waging an information war” and “militarizing new environments, including the seabed and cyberspace.” 

Although the French defense chief did not cite specific incidents, both Russia and NATO have accused each other of dangerous aerial maneuvers. In March, the Russian Defense Ministry said its jets had escorted two French Rafale warplanes that were flying over the Black Sea, close to the Russian border. 

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the delivery of weapons to Ukraine by Paris risks a dangerous escalation. In January, Russia summoned the French envoy over the presence of “French mercenaries” in Ukraine. While the French government acknowledged that its citizens were participating in the conflict, it denied facilitating their arrival on the battlefield. 

Commenting on Paris’ hostile stance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in May that President Emmanuel Macron was “breathing” Russophobia and claimed that the French leader was trying to use belligerent rhetoric to elevate his country’s position on the world stage.

https://www.rt.com/news/605214-france-names-russia-biggest-threat/

The EU economy needs to become more competitive with the US and China or it “could die,” French President Emmanuel Macron stated at the Berlin Global Dialogue event on Wednesday.

According to Macron, the 27-nation bloc is falling behind Washington and Beijing, both having outstripped the EU in economic output and investment.

He warned that the European Union is in a very precarious situation and could face problems if it fails to deepen its single market and to resolve “fragmentation.”

“The EU could die, we are on a verge of a very important moment,” the French president said.

“Our former model is over – we are over-regulating and under-investing. In the two to three years to come, if we follow our classical agenda we will be out of the market.”

The French president also warned that if the EU failed to urgently reform regulations the bloc would be forced to implement a rescue plan in five to ten years’ time.

He called on member states to press for fair global trade rules, while also urging Brussels to complete its banking union package of financial rules, according to Bloomberg.

Macron’s remarks echo the warnings published in Mario Draghi’s “economic competitiveness” report last month.

The former European Central Bank president and Italian prime minister said the EU needs €800 billion ($890 billion) in annual investment, which is about 4.5% of the entire bloc’s GDP, in order to just keep up with the US and China.

https://www.rt.com/business/605200-eu-could-die-macron/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.