After two years of defence of Vuhledar, the Ukrainian military withdrew from the city. Today, the Khortytsia operational and strategic grouping of troops officially announced this: ‘Having suffered numerous losses as a result of prolonged fighting, the enemy did not give up trying to capture Vuhledar. In an attempt to take control of the town at any cost, they managed to send reserves to conduct flanking attacks that exhausted the defences of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. As a result of the enemy’s actions, the city was threatened with encirclement. The Higher Command gave permission for a manoeuvre to withdraw units from Vuhledar in order to save personnel and military equipment, and to take up a position for further actions.’
Slidstvo.Info spoke to one of the military officers at the headquarters of one of the battalions of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has been defending this area and Vuhledar in particular since August 2022 without rotation. The soldier’s name has been changed for security reasons.
‘Before the brigade was redeployed to the Donetsk region, we had a fully operational unit and staff. But over two years of fighting without rotations and rest, we turned into an incapacitated unit, the brigade was wiped out,’ says Viktor, who holds a position at the headquarters of one of the battalions of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
‘In the two years since we have been in the Vuhledar area, only once in my battalion have we been able to fully staff only one company — out of the entire battalion. Every three months, we received 25 new recruits, mostly old men aged 50+. They were poorly trained in the ‘training schools’, they did not know tactical medicine at all, nor what a grenade launcher was. There was zero fire support, so we managed to teach them what we could in a week on the spot, but understood that it was very little time.’
When asked why they failed to hold the town, which was situated on a hill and had a very favourable position for defence, and which his brigade and other units had held for two years, Viktor explains: ‘And what is a dominant height now, if the enemy’s reconnaissance drones are hovering over you around the clock? And they have an advantage in artillery, we had practically no artillery, it’s not like it was in the winter of 23rd, when we defeated the 155th Brigade (in February 2023, the 72nd Brigade destroyed several columns of Russian tanks and effectively rendered the 155th Marine Brigade of the Russian Federation incapable of fighting, which attacked Pavlivka, near Vuhledar — ed.) Then we had a lot of artillery, shoot if you want, but now we don’t, they have parity in the air due to the larger number of FPV drones. The Russians also started remotely mining all the access roads to the front line. Yes, their infantry are bums, but they have an advantage in means and numbers. We simply had no one and nothing to fight with.’
Viktor tells us how many men he has left in the battalion. Out of 350 people, there are up to 30 people left for one platoon. This includes mechanics, drivers, and recently infantrymen who held the front line — a 2-3 kilometre strip — and there were 14-18 people in the unit.
‘We have repeatedly said that the unit is incapable of fighting, we were sometimes given some manpower, but they were also quickly worn out due to inadequately cut tasks, such as “restoring lost positions”, and we could no longer hold the ones we were standing on at the time,’ the soldier says.
When asked whether the Russian offensive on Vuhledar could have been deterred in recent months, Viktor replies that yes, ‘if we had been replaced at least 2-3 months ago, but it depends on who and what quality of infantry would have been there, whether they would not have been afraid to hold the front line.’
Slidstvo.Info asked the press service of the 72nd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for a comment on the circumstances of their withdrawal from Vuhledar, but they have not yet officially commented on this information.
Before the full-scale invasion, about 15,000 people lived in Vuhledar. The town was destroyed in 2023. A few days before the capture of Vuhledar, there were just over 100 residents left. According to the Donetsk Military-Civilian Administration, all children were evacuated.
Такий сьогодні ранок у Вугледарі.
Ситуація критична, хоча воїни 72 бригади і роблять більше, аніж здатна людина.
Найближчими днями ворог захопить Вугледар.
І, здається, на вищому рівні не зовсім розуміють, яка там нині оперативна ситуація. pic.twitter.com/XihEunzTx7— Serhii Sternenko ✙ (@sternenko) September 24, 2024
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Запис ‘We Simply Had Ho One and Nothing Left to Fight With’ — a Representative of the 72nd Brigade Battalion Headquarters on Leaving Vuhledar спершу з’явиться на Slidstvo.info.
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By: Кулакевич Наталі
