Russia may have lost an entire elite brigade at Vukhledar, the Ukrainian army reports.
“A large number of enemy forces, including the commanding staff, were destroyed near Vukhledar and Maryinka, in the Donetsk region,” Oleksiy Dmitryshkivskyi, head of the joint press center of the Tavrijsk region of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, told “Politico”.
“In addition, during the past week, the enemy has lost approximately 130 units of equipment, including 36 tanks,” added Dmitriškivskis.
He stated that the Russians were losing 150 to 300 marines a day at Vuhledar.
The tactical failures at Vuhledar are likely to have further weakened the confidence of the Russian ultranationalist community that Moscow is capable of launching a decisive offensive, the US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has acknowledged in its current report.
Pro-Kremlin bloggers mourn the huge losses and criticize the Russian command for sending elite units in frontal attacks.
Ukrainian marines have also released a video showing Russian soldiers panicking on the battlefield near Vuhledar. Ukrainian artillerymen can be heard saying in the background that the first Russian column flew into the air and the second followed the same route.
“The 155th brigade had to be replenished three times already. The first time after Irpina and Bucha; the second time they were called near Donetsk (..), and now almost the entire brigade has already been destroyed near Vuhledar,” said Dmitriškivskis.
Russian military personnel and nationalists took the defeat at Vuhledar painfully. ISW points out that the recent news about the failed Russian attacks near Vuhledar has prompted some Russian bloggers to demand public trials of senior officers as they continue to repeat the same mistakes.
