Ukraine's army said Wednesday it had withdrawn from the eastern town of Vugledar, handing Russia one of its most significant territorial gains in weeks.
The fall of the coal mining town raised new questions about Ukraine's defensive positions along its southeastern front line with Russia advancing ahead of winter.
Around 14,000 people lived in Vugledar before Russia invaded, making it one of Moscow's more important gains in months of grinding advances across the east.
"The High Command gave permission for a manoeuvre to withdraw units from Vugledar in order to save personnel and military equipment and take up a position for further operations," Ukraine's Khortytsia group of troops, which operates in the area, said in a Telegram post.
The unit said it had inflicted heavy losses on Russian forces but that relentless attacks meant "there was a threat of encirclement," forcing it to withdraw.
Vugledar is about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Donetsk city, the capital of a region Russia claims to have annexed.
Moscow's forces have been trying to capture the town since the first weeks of its invasion, launched in February 2022.
There has been particularly bloody fighting for the town throughout the two and a half year war, and it has been largely flattened by Russian shelling.
Russian military bloggers had posted videos in recent days of troops raising Russian flags at various spots in Vugledar.
The defence ministry in Moscow has not officially claimed the town.
In a daily briefing on Wednesday it said its forces had captured the small settlement of Verkhnokamyanske further north in the Donetsk region.
Given the military resources dedicated to the town, Vugledar has taken on symbolic importance for Russia and Ukraine.
Around 100 civilians still lived there despite the heavy fighting in recent weeks, the Ukrainian governor of the Donetsk region, Vadym Filashkin, said Tuesday.
"The humanitarian situation in Vugledar is extremely difficult," he said on Telegram.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War doubted whether Russia would gain a strategic advantage from the capture.
"It is unclear if Russian forces will make rapid gains beyond Vugledar in the immediate future," it said in a battlefield analysis report.
But Kyiv's withdrawal will raise wider concerns about its ability to hold the sprawling 1,000-kilometre (625 mile) frontline, facing a Russian army with a manpower and ammunition advantage.
The capture of Vugledar comes with Russian troops trying to advance on the logistics hub of Pokrovsk, further north.
Thousands of civilians have fled Pokrovsk over the last month with Russian forces less than 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
The mining city was home to 60,000 people before Moscow launched its offensive, and its capture would be one of Russia's most consequential gains in months.
