An elite Russian brigade of 5,000 soldiers has been destroyed and reformed as many as 8 times after heavy losses, report says

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  1. An elite Russian brigade of 5,000 soldiers has been destroyed and reformed as many as 8 times after heavy losses, report says

    * The same Russian brigade has been destroyed and reconstituted 8 times since the start of the war.
    * The Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade suffered heavy losses in attempts to take Vuhledar.
    * Russian failures in Vuhledar have sparked rare criticism from the country’s military bloggers.

    An elite Russian brigade has been destroyed and reformed as many as eight times since the start of the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, said in a [report](https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-updates) on Friday.

    The Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade has been repeatedly destroyed partly due to losses it has faced during Russia’s efforts to take the town of Vuhledar in eastern Ukraine.

    At one point the entire brigade, which consisted of 5,000 troops, was reported to be destroyed near Vuhledar.

    Soldiers were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi, head of the united press center of the Tavriskiy District of Ukrainian defense forces, told [Politico on February 12](https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-may-have-lost-an-entire-elite-brigade-near-a-coal-mining-town-in-donbas-ukraine-says/).

    Dmytrashkivskyi estimated at the time that Russian forces were losing 150-300 marines a day near the coal-mining town.

    The town of Vuhledar has been the center of intense fighting in January and February as Russian troops have repeatedly attempted and failed to seize it. Sporadic fighting has continued since mid-February, but at a lower intensity.

    Russian forces have experienced high casualties in Vuhledar and have lost dozens of vehicles. Videos have emerged of Russian tanks and armored vehicles [repeatedly being blown up](https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-troops-driving-death-crossing-point-vuhledar-2023-3) by mines and anti-tank missiles near the town. 

    Russia’s tactical errors and battlefield losses even sparked [rare criticism](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/07/casualties-russia-outcry-vuhledar-svatove/) from Russian military bloggers, despite the fact that criticizing the war is outlawed in Russia.

    The ISW noted that intense criticism about Russian failures in Vuhledar was re-emerging following the failed assaults in the early months of the year, and ongoing fears about a possible Ukrainian counteroffensive. 

    Some of these military bloggers have criticized the Russian military command for ordering ineffective human-wave style frontal assaults in Vuhledar, according to ISW.

    This tactic, which involves an initial frontal assault followed by assaults against fortified Ukrainian flanks, has led to little gains and high combat losses due to the challenging terrain, a lack of combat power, and failure to surprise Ukrainian forces.

  3. That’s not how elite works. Experience lost is lost forever. Training could be redone, but at 8 times in a year there was no time for that.

  5. [This post](https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/120909j/why_has_ukraine_continued_to_defend_bakhmut/) on r/CredibleDefense proposes that Ukraine holding onto Bakhmut with the minimum forces require to do so is a deliberate attempt at destroying Russian reserves in preparation for an upcoming counteroffensive. Said post:

    * is well-sourced
    * predicted Putin doing something to make “explicit, specific nuclear threats” viable (in this case, stationing tacnukes in Belarus) a day before it happened
    * matches up with two videos of [a Ukrainian unit nearly being overrun](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/120k9p3/part_1_k2_battalion_drone_view_of_battle_against/) and then [having armor show up to plug the gap](https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/122kovc/the_continuation_of_the_battle_for_one_of_the/)

    Therefore, I’m quite inclined to believe it.

    [As of Feburary 19, Russia only has a single division held in reserve, the 2nd Motorized Rifle Division, elements of which have likely been committed to combat already.](https://www.reddit.com/r/CredibleDefense/comments/120909j/why_has_ukraine_continued_to_defend_bakhmut/)

    >The pattern of Russian deployments in other parts of the theater strongly suggests that most of the available maneuver elements of the other military districts and the Airborne Forces are already committed and thus do not constitute a large reserve that Moscow could suddenly hurl into the fray in Luhansk Oblast or elsewhere.

    I personally think there are more Russian, reserves, just because there only being one seems so unlikely that…but there’s also been a month of meatgrinder combat in Bakhmut since February 19. Also, there’s no big wave of Russian conscription/mobilization going on right now.

    ​

    **TL;DR:** RU is taking grotesque losses and UA is probably trying to use as few troops as possible to cause these losses so UA can build up for another counteroffensive.

  8. No elite brigade gets destroyed and reformed once every month and a half. Elite troops dead are simply lost, you can’t train someone for a couple of months and replace them, or even a couple of years. It either hasn’t been reformed that many times, or it isn’t elite.

  9. Ukraine almost lost at Bakhmut, Russia encircled almost entire city except one road. Russia used to fight professional Ukrainian army at the beginning but now a lot of Ukrainian soldiers are teens and elderly. Till the last Ukrainian doesn’t seem to work well

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