Elite Russian units made multiple unsuccessful attempts to capture a fortified coal mining town in Vuhledar, Donetsk in broad daylight, resulting in heavy military losses for Russia. Ukrainian officials reported significant numbers of enemy troops killed, wounded, and captured during the battle, and a marine brigade of 5,000 men was almost completely destroyed for the third time since the start of the full-scale invasion by the Kremlin nearly a year ago.
Russian hardliners have demanded open prosecutions for the inept generals who were in charge of what turned out to be the slaughter of their soldiers on the battlefield as a result of the battle’s substantial casualties and destruction of at least 130 armoured vehicles.
Some of these generals, in the words of Igor Girkin, a former Russian intelligence officer who participated in the pro-Moscow uprisings in Donetsk and Crimea, are “complete cretins” who continually made the same errors.
Girkin berated the Ukrainian military for possessing elevated positions that allowed them to shoot the Russian men down like turkeys on a shooting range.
The most recent attempt to capture Vuhledar began in late January when Spetsnaz special forces, armored battalions, and infantry troops launched attacks from different directions.
However, the Spetsnaz commander was killed in an early setback for the Russians.
Vuhledar, a mining town located on high ground near the only rail link between Crimea and Donetsk, was fortified with artillery after surviving three months of previous attacks.
The heaviest attacks occurred last week, resulting in a high number of marine casualties, according to the Daily Mail.
According to Evgeny Nazarenko, a spokesman for one of the Ukrainian units defending the town, the Russian movements were easily spotted from high-rise buildings as they moved across open fields towards the town because the defenders had the higher ground.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg again urged Ukraine’s Western allies to ramp up their military support.
Asked Monday when he expects Russia’s so-called spring offensive to begin, Stoltenberg said that “the reality is that we have seen the start already.”
“For me, this just highlights the importance of timing. It’s urgent to provide Ukraine with more weapons,” he told reporters in Brussels. Stoltenberg said that NATO sees “no sign whatsoever that President Putin is preparing for peace” and that arming Ukraine more quickly could save lives by bringing a quicker end to the conflict.
Russian forces shelled a dozen cities and villages in the Donetsk region in the last 24 hours including in Druzhkivka where a missile hit a hospital and in Pokrovsk where shelling damaged seven houses and a kindergarten.
