This week, the 57th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Army broke through the defenses of the 72nd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is defending Vugledar in the Donetsk region. The invaders are currently in the south of the city, and the tired Ukrainian garrison is probably already beginning to retreat north.
According to Forbes, even if the Russians capture Vugledar, this victory will cost them dearly. The fighting in this area has already cost them about a thousand pieces of equipment and several thousand soldiers. The powerful defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with the help of mines, artillery, UAVs and anti-tank missiles destroyed entire enemy brigades.
The enemy had the hardest time from late 2022 to early 2023. At that time, Russian operations in the fields outside Vugledar were led by a pair of marine units of the Russian Pacific Fleet: the 40th and 155th Marine Brigades. Their unsuccessful attacks were some of the bloodiest of the entire war. For example, the 155th Brigade, which on paper had about 3,000 soldiers, lost up to 300 people a day for several days and was almost destroyed by February 2023. After being replenished, it was again defeated.
“In the last six months, the 155th has probably been reduced to a non-combat state at least twice due to tactically flawed attacks near Vugledar,” the UK Ministry of Defence noted in April 2023.
Meanwhile, the 40th Marine Brigade fared slightly better, but not by much. In total, these and supporting units lost about a thousand tanks, combat vehicles, trucks, and artillery pieces, according to WarSpotting. That’s about two brigades of equipment and nearly six percent of all the vehicles Russia has lost in 31 months of heavy fighting in Ukraine.
In contrast, the Ukrainian Armed Forces suffered significantly fewer casualties in this area, as the defenders were mostly in trenches and bunkers, firing at the enemy from a distance using mines, artillery, missiles, and drones.
