Russia just suffered a crushing defeat and lost an entire elite brigade

Vladimir Putin just suffered one of his most humiliating defeats in Ukraine after one of Russia’s most elite brigades was destroyed near a coal mining town in Donetsk.

For weeks Ukrainian officials had been warning of a coming Russian advance and it looks like one of the first major attacks came at Vuhledar. 

Images leaked by the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense showed that the Russians had likely lost dozens of armored vehicles according to a Reuters report.

Online military bloggers like Reporting from Ukraine, claimed Russia lost an entire tank battalion based on video evidence of the situation released by Ukrainian marines. 

“Russian units have likely suffered particularly heavy casualties around Vuhledar as inexperienced units have been committed,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense wrote on February 10th in their daily intelligence update. 

“Russian troops likely fled and abandoned at least 30 mostly intact armored vehicles in a single incident after a failed assault,” Ministry of Defense officials added, but the devastation might have been much worse. 

On February 13th, reports of a larger catastrophe in Vuhledar began circulating with Poilitco’s Veronika Melkozeroa writing that Putin may have lost one of his most elite brigades. 

The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade was tasked with storming Vuhledar according to information Melkozeroa obtained from the head of Tavriskiy District’s press center, Oleksiy Dmytrashkivskyi. 

“A large number of enemy forces, including the command staff, were destroyed near Vuhledar and Mariinka in Donetsk Oblast,” Dmytrashkivskyi told Politico.

“In addition, over the past week, the enemy lost about 130 units of equipment, including 36 units of tanks,” Dmytrashkivskyi added. 

The battle in Vulhedar wasn’t the first time Russia’s elite 155th Naval Infantry Brigade has suffered a major defeat in Ukraine according to Dmytrashkivskyi, it "had to be restaffed three times" after previous engagements with Ukrainian forces. 

“The first time after Irpin and Bucha; the second time they were defeated near Donetsk— they recovered again,” Dmytrashkivskyi told Politico, "now almost the entire brigade has already been destroyed near Vuhledar.”

The Kremlin has yet to officially comment on the allegation that its forces were soundly defeated in Vulhedar, but military blogger Igor Girkin sounded off on what he said was a battle that only had “one-sided” losses. 

“Ukrainian artillery shoots exceptionally accurately. More than 30 units of armored vehicles were lost. Dozens of tankmen were killed. Even more marines, special forces, and motorized riflemen died,” Girkin wrote on his Telegram channel. 

“All these losses turned out to be one-sided,” Gherkin added, “the Ukrainians shot the attackers like in a shooting gallery.”

The 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had previously attempted to take Vuhledar in November 2022, but that assault also ended in failure and losses of up to 50% according to a report from CNN.