Sabotage and reconnaissance groups are coming in, but our defenders are trying to knock them out. This means that the town is not yet captured," he said on national television."Our defenders are doing everything possible and impossible. They burned a lot of enemy equipment."The front-line town lies about 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of occupied Donetsk and roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) east of the administrative border with Zaporizhzhia Oblast.The 72nd Mechanized Brigade has defended Vuhledar for nearly two years, as Russian forces have been trying to capture the town since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.Filashkin said Russian forces are trying to break through Ukraine's defense line near Vuhledar and "are advancing." According to the crowd-sourced monitoring website DeepState, Russian forces are aiming to encircle the town.