Russian troops have entered deeper into the embattled town of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine according to the head of the Donetsk regional state administration and based on videos and photos posted by the Russians. Vuhledar has been an important bulwark against Russian advances in the region with its high ground and location between the eastern and southern fronts. Its fall, as we have previously reported, imperils the southern flank of Pokrovsk, a key regional logistics hub.
“The fighting is taking place within the city limits, so it is almost impossible to deliver humanitarian aid,” Vadym Filashkin, head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration said on Telegram Tuesday. “107 people still remain. Fortunately, all the children have already been evacuated from there.”
Russian forces posted video and images of the tricolor flag waving atop a building there.
As the Russians drew closer, Ukrainian troops said the only way out for soldiers still in the city late last week was on foot as they were hunted by drones and bombarded by artillery, The New York Times reported.
“There’s nowhere to hold ground,” one soldier from the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, which has been defending Vuhledar, told the publication. “The logistics are disrupted, making it almost impossible to stay there.”
Beyond the strategic implications of losing Vuhledar are economic concerns. It was built atop two coal mines, where a significant amount of coal reserves remain, according to Reuters.
Before the Russians entered Vuhledar, the brigade’s commander said he was transferred to another unit.
“Gentlemen, officers, sergeants, soldiers! From the summer of 2022 to today, I had a long and difficult journey, Col. Ivan Vinnik wrote on the unit’s Telegram channel. “But it was not difficult, because I did not overcome it alone. A loyal and motivated team was nearby.”
Vinnik did not say where he was going or who would replace him.
Russia has paid a very high price for its offensive. The past four months have been the deadliest of the war for Russian forces according to the U.K. Defense Ministry and its analysts say it is unclear how long they can sustain the current pace of operations.
However, they have entered Vuhledar as they continue to chew up territory in a slow and deadly grind through Donetsk. The next weeks will tell us more about how much Ukrainian forces have buckled and how well they can defend the rest of the region, much of which does not have the same advantages of elevation and large buildings that provide some form of cover.
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The Russians appear to be continuing efforts to build out their defenses near the twice-attacked Kerch Bridge. New satellite imagery obtained by The War Zone shows the construction of what could be permanent barriers to the north and south of the bridge.
In the upper portion of the image, you can see what looks like pilings driven into the seabed to create what could be a kind of fence to protect the bridge. There are two sections south of the bridge, one forming a line running east to the section of the span allowing shipping to pass through and another to the west of that opening. There is similar construction taking place north of the bridge. Nearly three dozen barges placed south of the bridge, lined up in two rows, are now in place as well, allowing a fairly narrow passage. It’s also possible these new additions could be for another use, such as for a pipeline.
If these are indeed barriers, they would be designed to stop Ukrainian uncrewed surface vessels (USV) from striking the bridge. It was severely damaged in July 2023 by a Ukrainian Sea Baby drone boat attack and before that by a truck bomb in October 2022.
As we noted last week, Russia is also building flak towers near the bridge to house Pantsir air defense systems.
You can see those towers in a video shot by someone crossing the bridge.
Last year, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate vowed that Vladimir Putin’s prized $4 billion span linking Russia to the Crimean peninsula it occupies will come down.
“It’s not a question of will we strike or won’t we strike,” Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told us last year during an exclusive interview from his hotel room while he was visiting Washington, D.C. “We’re doing that regularly so we will finish it. It’s just an issue of time.”
Whether Budanov’s promise is fulfilled remains to be seen. However, the images potentially showing additional defensive lines being built around it is further evidence that Russia is taking that threat seriously.
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On the battlefield, the heaviest fighting continues to take place in Ukraine’s Donetsk region while the invasion of Kursk Oblast in Russia grinds on, according to the latest assessment from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
- Kursk: Ukrainian forces recently advanced in Glushkovsky Raion west of the Ukrainian salient while geolocated footage published on September 29 indicates that Ukrainian forces “recently advanced west and northwest of Veseloye (south of Glushkovo) and likely seized the northwestern part of the settlement,” ISW reported.” Russian forces counterattacked near the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast on September 29, but did not make any confirmed advances in the area.”
- Kharkiv Oblast: Russian forces continued offensive operations in northern Kharkiv Oblast on September 29 but did not make any confirmed advances.
- Luhansk Oblast: Russian forces continued offensive operations along the Kupyansk-Svatove-Kreminna line on September 29 but did not make any confirmed advances.
- Donetsk Oblast: Russian forces made no confirmed advances northeast of Siversk near Bilohorivka, east of Siversk near Verkhnokamyanske, and southeast of Siversk near Vyimka as well as in the Chasiv Yar direction and west of Donetsk City on September 29, including near Vuhledar. However, they “recently marginally advanced in Toretsk amid continued assaults in the area on September 29” as well as southeast of Pokrovsk.
Russia will boost its defense spending by 25% to its highest on record, as Vladimir Putin vows to continue his war efforts in Ukraine and further escalate his standoff with the West, The Guardian reported.
The latest planned increase in spending will take Russia’s defense budget to a record 13.5 trillion rubles ($145 billion) in 2025, according to draft budget documents published on Monday on the parliament’s website. That represents an increase of about 3 trillion rubles ($6 billion) more than was set aside for defense this year, which was the previous record, The Guardian noted
All told, spending on defense and security “will account for about 40% of Russia’s total government spending – or 41.5 trillion rubles in 2025,” the publication reported. That’s about $437 billion.
The 2025 budget “suggests Putin has embraced what economists have dubbed “military Keynesianism”, marked by a significant rise in military spending, which has fuelled the war in Ukraine, spurred a consumer spending boom and driven up inflation,” according to The Guardian.
Ukraine will receive a new tranche of U.S.-made GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDBs) as part of a $6.9 billion sole-source contract awarded to Boeing.
“Work will be performed in St. Louis, Missouri, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2035,” according to the Pentagon. Bulgaria and Japan will also receive SDBs through this contract, though the Pentagon does not say how many will go to each country.
The 250-pound guided bombs with pop-out wings have a range of up to 40 nautical miles.
Dropped by Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters, the SDBs have been used to great effect by Ukraine, which first disclosed it had begun employing them in May.
They have “proved resilient to jamming,” according to The Washington Post, in an article published in May citing confidential internal Ukrainian assessments. The same article notes that “nearly 90 percent of dropped [Small Diameter Bombs] struck their target.”
The War Zone has previously examined the potential for Ukraine to arm its donated F-16 fighters with SDBs, noting specifically the advantages the munitions provide in terms of accuracy, standoff range, ability to strike semi-hardened static targets, and the large numbers in NATO stockpiles to draw from.
In contrast, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) variant of the weapon has been much less successful, and highly susceptible to jamming. Able to strike targets at a distance of around 94 miles, each GLSDB weapon combines the SDB with the rocket booster motor from a 227mm-caliber M26 artillery rocket that can also be fired by the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS and the M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).
Russia bombarded a shopping center in Kherson, killing at least seven people.
Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the strike “hit as shoppers made their way between stalls at a market in the city center,” according to Yahoo News. He published a video showing the blurred corpses of people in civilian clothes lying near a destroyed vegetable stall.
The General Prosecutor’s Office said the strike was “most likely” carried out by Russian artillery, the outlet reported.
With Ukrainian men fighting on the front lines, a group of women called “The Witches of Bucha” are serving as air defenders, hunting and downing drones.
In the following video, several talk about their decision to join the fight.
“My husband and then my husband’s brother died in March 2022,” one woman explained. “Plus the property was destroyed – there was a direct hit on the apartment. My mom got sick – couldn’t take it all and passed away. So as far as motivation, since June 22, my nephew has been missing in the Avdiivka direction. So I have motivation.”
The following video shows a Russian Mavic drone struck by a munition dropped by a Ukrainian drone. It is the first time we have seen this type of attack.
A Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker fighter and a donated F-16 Viper were recently seen flying together somewhere in the skies over Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded pilot Andrii “Juice” Pilshchikov with the Hero of Ukraine. A widely-known informal ambassador for Ukraine’s Air Force, he was killed last year in a training mishap. You can read more about him in our interview here.
Last week, we told you how troops from Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) recaptured the sprawling aggregate plant in the Kharkiv Oblast city of Vovchansk. Now Russian troops are using “the maximum range of weapons” to attack it, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Describing the situation as “difficult,” Kharkiv Group of Forces spokesperson Vitalii Sarantsev said Russian forces were continuously assaulting the Kharkiv sector, and had made the Vovchansk plant its “number one goal.”
Russia reportedly paid a heavy price for an assault there.
Speaking of Vovchansk, this aerial image below shows just how badly it has suffered from repeated Russian bombardment. After nearly three years of full-on war, it is almost completely destroyed.
In the war-ravaged Donetsk Oblast city of Toretsk, Ukrainian troops stormed a building housing Russian forces and planted explosives. The attack reportedly caused a number of casualties.
A Ukrainian drone attack on an ammunition depot in Kotluban near Volograd failed to achieve its objective, Radio Liberty reported on Telegram.
“As can be seen in the satellite image from September 29, a fire broke out near the arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate after the strike of Ukrainian drones, but the fire did not spread to the territory of the ammunition depot,” the outlet explained.
A Ukrainian drone caused an explosion near Yeysk Airfield in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region, according to the governor. However, there was no damage to the base and no one was hurt, said Veniamin Kondratiev.
The “drone suppressed by electronic warfare forces crashed into a tree and exploded – the blast wave knocked out the windows and doors of a nearby house, and shrapnel damaged a car,” he explained on Telegram.
However, video emerged on social media showing a huge explosion and anti-aircraft rounds being fired. The War Zone could not immediately determine what, if any damaged, was caused.
Ukrainian forces recently recovered a Russian drone using a fiber optic cable to avoid being affected by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems. It’s something we first wrote about in May.
The drone flew nine kilometers somewhere on the eastern front before it became a “trophy,” Ukrainian drone developer Serhii Flash said on Telegram.
Ukraine is testing auto-capture technology on its FPV drones that would allow them to strike targets even if jammed by electronic warfare.
“This is probably the best solution I have seen for such adequate money,” Flash said on Telegram. “I was interested in capturing fast-moving and actively maneuvering targets. Of course, we are not talking about 100% hits in such difficult conditions, but the percentage is very high. Plus, the guys are constantly working on improvements. Static targets have no chance.”
The following video shows some of the conditions faced by Ukrainian troops on the front lines. You can see a couple sleeping in the hollowed-out walls of a trench.
Despite riding around with an anti-drone electronic warfare device on the back of his vehicle, Denys Kulaga, a war correspondent for the official Izvestia news outlet, was struck and injured by a Ukrainian drone near Chasiv Yar.
The Russian troops in the following video fared far better. One is seen firing from the back of a swiftly moving truck at a Ukrainian FPV drone. The drone eventually crashed and exploded, but did not catch up to the Russians.
And finally, winter is coming to Ukraine and with it frigid conditions and treelines that will no longer have leaves to provide cover for both sides. Though it is only September and the fall mud season has yet to commence, it was already snowing in the higher elevations of the Carpathian Mountains.
That’s it for now.
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com