‘Lives are more important than buildings’ — Zelensky defends Vuhledar withdrawal

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Oct. 3 that the decision of the Ukrainian military to withdraw from the front-line town of Vuhledar was “absolutely correct” as it helped save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers.
“We cannot stop Russia without appropriate weapons. Then, when they destroy the positions of our troops, we must protect their lives because they are more important than any buildings,” Zelensky said in response to a journalist during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Kyiv.
Kyiv’s forces announced the withdrawal from the key Donetsk Oblast settlement on Oct. 2 after Russian forces swarmed the town’s flanks and entered Vuhledar itself.
Lying in the southern part of the region, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of occupied Donetsk and roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the administrative border with Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Vuhledar has faced a heavy Russian onslaught since 2022.
Ukrainian soldiers who defended the town “are our people, they are Ukrainian citizens. Therefore, it was correct that they left and saved themselves,” Zelensky said.
“For the sake of our state, for the sake of their heroic service. It was an absolutely correct step.”
The president took the opportunity to call upon Ukraine’s partner to speed up their weapons deliveries to help Kyiv fend off Russian aggression.
During his address on Sept. 30, Zelensky said that Ukraine faces a “very challenging” situation on the front lines. Apart from Vuhledar, Russian forces have been focusing their efforts against the Donetsk Oblast towns of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, where outnumbered and outgunned Ukrainian soldiers are forced to withdraw slowly.
Russian troops also appear to be preparing for assault operations in the southeastern Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where “the enemy is amassing personnel,” the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command spokesman Vladyslav Voloshyn said on Sept. 28.