MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. The situation worsened for Ukrainian troops on the front line near the town of Selidovo in the Kiev-controlled area of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said Vitaly Milovidov, spokesman for Ukraine’s 15th Kara-Dag brigade of operational assignment at the National Guard of Ukraine.

"We can now see [Russian forces] advancing southwards and northwards of the town of Selidovo in an attempt to create conditions for semi-encircling our units," the officer told Kiev-24 television.

According to him, the Russian military has "intensified the suppression of Ukrainian firing positions."

In late September, Ukrainian military expert Konstantin Mashovets said that Ukrainian troops would highly likely retreat from Selidovo as well as Dzerzhinsk (known as Toretsk in Ukraine) and Ugledar soon.

On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the liberation of Ugledar. The city is a key logistics hub in the DPR, and its liberation will enable Russian forces to reach the Ukrainian line of defense in Slavyansk and Kramatorsk, push enemy troops farther away from the DPR’s capital and reduce the number of enemy attacks on Yelenovka and the outskirts of Volnovakha.

Besides, this will put more pressure on Kiev’s combat group in the Kurakhovo direction and logistics points leading to the city of Zaporozhye and will further enable Russian troops to press ahead with their offensive in that direction.