Remember when Putin lost an entire elite brigade after suffering a major defeat?

In February 2023, Msocow suffered a humiliating defeat after an elite brigade was destroyed during an encounter near the coal mining town of Vuhledar in Donetsk Oblast.

In the weeks leading up to the encounter, Ukrainian officials had been warning of a coming Russian advance set to occur on the frontlines in Donetsk and Vuhledar would be one of the first major targets. 

Images leaked by the UK Ministry of Defense at the time in the wake of Russia's advance near Vuhledar showed the Russian forces had likely lost dozens of armored vehicles according to a Reuters report.

Online military bloggers like 'Reporting from Ukraine', stated Russia lost an entire tank battalion based on the video evidence of the battles that were taking place as Russia attempted its advance. 

“Russian units have likely suffered particularly heavy casualties around Vuhledar as inexperienced units have been committed,” Britain’s Ministry of Defense wrote in a February 10th, 2023 war update published in X. 

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

On February 13th, reports of a larger catastrophe in Vuhledar began circulating. Poilitco’s Veronika Melkozeroa wrote that Russia might have lost one of his most elite brigades in the fighting at the time.  

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 explained at the time.  

The battle in Vulhedar wasn’t the first time Russia’s elite 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had 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 did not officially comment on the allegations that its forces were soundly defeated in Vulhedar when they were made, but the now-deceased pro-Russian 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. 

Vuhledar has continued to be a primary focus of Russian forces for nearly two years. The battle to take the small town began on October 28th, 2022 according to Wikipedia, and the Ukrainian stronghold fell to Russia on the 2nd of October 2024.