>*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.
>[…]
>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 [Russian] 155th [Guards Naval Infantry] Brigade. 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.’
!ping Ukraine
Zealousideal_Pop_933 on
>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.’
It’s amazing they’ve been as successful as they are, given conditions like these. Anybody know the size of a Ukrainian Battalion?
2 Comments
Summary:
>*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.
>[…]
>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 [Russian] 155th [Guards Naval Infantry] Brigade. 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.’
!ping Ukraine
>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.’
It’s amazing they’ve been as successful as they are, given conditions like these. Anybody know the size of a Ukrainian Battalion?