Russian troops have reached the center of Vukhledar, a bastion on a strategic hill in eastern Ukraine that has resisted Russian attacks since the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, the governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said today.

The regional governor Vadim Filashkin stated that the situation in Vukhledar is extremely difficult.

“The enemy is already close to the center of the city,” Phylaskin told Ukrainian television.

Russian forces seized the outskirts of the small mining town last week and have stepped up their attacks in recent days.

Moscow’s troops in eastern Ukraine advanced at their fastest pace in two years in August, according to multiple open-source maps. Their relentless advance into eastern Ukraine comes despite Ukraine’s surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region.

Oleksandr Mushenko, a Ukrainian military analyst, said Russia’s advance on Buhledar came at a high cost in casualties for Moscow, but would complicate Ukraine’s position in the east. “Its defense was the key to stopping the enemy’s faster and sharper advance in the Donetsk region. If there was no Vukhledar, if our units were not there, I think it would be much more difficult now, for example, in the direction of Kurakhiv,” Musienko said.

Ukrainian military analysts said that full control of Vukhledar would help Moscow’s troops advance further into the region, as they would control heights important for their artillery fire.

Russian forces are relentlessly shelling towns and villages across the region, Filashkin said.

“It is very dangerous to stay in the area and I stress once again the need for people to leave,” he said.

Filashkin said about 35,000 people remain in government-controlled areas. Before the invasion began, 1.9 million people lived in government-controlled areas.

Only 107 civilians remained in Vukhledar, which before the war had a population of 14,000, Filashkin said.